Walter makes baskets and sculpture pieces out of the pine needles she collects from the yard of her Wilmington, North Carolina, home. In 1993, she taught herself the traditional technique of coiling and shaping the needles into baskets by reading books. Walter is now a full-time artist showcasing her basketry work in more than 60 galleries around the United States. She begins a piece by collecting the pine needles, sorting and cleaning them, bundling the needles into ropes and then coiling them into shapes. She also incorporates pottery into her baskets and bowls to enhance the texture and pattern of her creations. “Clay was my first love, so I wanted to incorporate them together,” Walter says. “I want to make the pine needles speak and sing.” Walter has sketchbooks full of ideas. She plays with different techniques and organic materials to make works of art. Recently, she has been experi-menting with more sculptural pieces, such as whimsi-cal, woven pine needle fish and trees. She gathers inspiration from other artists and the patterns she sees in the natural world. Seminole tribes living in Southern Florida, where longleaf pines were plentiful, are thought to be the first to develop the craft, Walter says. The technique was adopted in other areas of the South in the mid-to- late 1800s. Walter is committed to preserving longleaf pine trees and the art of pine needle basketry. She is a member of the Longleaf Alliance and teaches basket-weaving classes at the Cameron Art Museum and Poplar Grove Plantation. “I love the smell, the way they grow, the beauty of their needles,” Walter says. “I can’t see myself ever wanting to do anything else. … I want to continue demonstrating and teaching so that pine needle bas-ketry is not a lost art.” Melanie Walter will lead basic pine needle basket-making workshops at the Cameron Art Museum, noon to 4 p.m., Sunday, March 9 and at Poplar Grove Plantation, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesday, March 11. Clockwise from top left: Melanie Walter at work in her home studio. “Blue Urchin,” hand-built stoneware clay with pine needle rims. Hickory rim handled basket. Detail of white and rust pine needle platter. “Sandra’s Fish” and “Seymour.” 14 WBM march 2014
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