BASKET MAKER'S WORK FOUND WORLDWIDE

Honey Marie, one of Leona Webb's pets she adopted from the area Humane Society, easily fits inside of a large basket that has a handle made of elk antlers. Webb uses elk and deer antlers for her most unique creations.

Weavers are long strands of wood that Leona Webb uses in weaving her baskets. She can weave a small basket in a few hours.

Take away your paper bags, plastic buckets, metal pails, cardboard boxes, plastic bags and other modern containers and you'll get some idea of how important the common basket has been throughout history.

The basket, perhaps as much as any singular relic, was equally important to men and women, the young and the old, the poor and the affluent.

The Egyptians used them 7,000 years ago to carry grain; the ancient Greeks used them for utilitarian purposes and as ceremonial articles. In the second chapter of Exodus the account is given of how Moses was hidden in an ark made of bullrushes daubed with slime and pitch. An ark was a basket.

Baskets were abundant in frontier America -- the lifestyle of the pioneers lent itself to the need and use of baskets, and there was a plentiful supply of basket-making materials, and plenty of people possessed the knowledge how to make them.

The basket came to be a symbol of the rural farm and forest oriented society.

But during the early decades of this century the advent of galvanized buckets, factory-made wooden boxes, paper bags and cheap plastic containers put the old-time basket makers out of business.

Leona Webb of rural Patton has revived the almost lost craft of basket weaving. From her home along a winding country road in Bollinger County, Webb has woven thousands of baskets of various sizes, colors and designs.

She is listed in the Missouri section of the "National Register for Craftsmen," and through her mail order catalogue people in Guam, Canada, California, Texas and Florida have acquired her stylish, sturdy baskets.

"People can take baskets for granted," said Webb, who was born in Perry County and attended one-room schoolhouses during her grade school years. "They were a necessity if people wanted to take produce to market, and they could be made pretty quickly."

To illustrate, Webb said people who went into the forest and happened across a bunch of hazel nuts or walnuts, if their pockets were not big enough they would poke holes in bark and use vines from brush "to make little baskets that could be used again, or tossed into the stove at home."

Webb started weaving baskets about 12 years ago -- her sister's collection of antique baskets piqued her interest. Also, while at a crafts show in Cape Girardeau about the same time, where she was exhibiting her paintings and crocheting, Webb noticed an Arkansas merchant sold a truck load of baskets "in no time at all."

Webb enrolled in a one-day basket weaving class, practiced the craft for a number of years, and now teaches basket weaving at Mineral Area College in Park Hills.

She tries to limit the two-day classes to 18 people, and remembers one class that had 27 attendees.

"There were five college professors, the dean of the college and some high school and grade school teachers there," she said, smiling. "And you could tell their educations by the level of the work they did.

"The grade school teachers were the best, the high school teachers were next best and the college professors could not follow directions. I guess they were used to giving them ... it was a job."

Webb can weave an 8-inch basket in two hours, and her largest creation, a basket measuring 26 inches across took several weeks. She also weaves a plethora of 3-inch baskets -- delicate yet sturdy.

Some of the baskets have handles made of deer and elk antlers. They sell for up to $150. At craft fairs and competitions throughout Missouri, Arkansas and Illinois, she has won a host of blue and red ribbons, and cash prizes.

Basket weaving materials include hoops or rims, spokes and weavers.

Weavers are long, slender pieces of ash, oak, elm or rattan that Webb orders in 100-pound shipments. The weavers come in bundles called hanks, which weigh 1-pound each. Widths vary from one-eighth inch to 1 1/2 inches.

"I like the one-quarter- to three-eighths-inch weavers," said Webb, pulling some from a large pile in her kitchen. "They look good, the designs can be more intricate and they make the baskets sturdier."

Her baskets come in all shapes and sizes, and she has six original designs that she says other people are copying. One of the designs is of an old-fashioned wall basket. It's shown in the "Best of Missouri Hands" crafts magazine.

Baskets are often woven in her living room as she sits on a sheet and watches "the soaps." Basket handles and rims are aligned and spokes and weavers added. Weaving starts at either end and progresses toward the middle.

Prior to weaving baskets, Webb soaks the weavers in warm water to make them flexible. She uses her kitchen sink for this.

If colors are desired in the baskets, Webb stains the weavers. Barrels outside her home contain water that has been colored by using a variety of natural products.

"I use acorns for grayish-brown color, hazel nut pods, walnut hulls, edelberries, possum grapes, black berries and a black bug from New Mexico.

"The bug comes from a cactus. You soak it in warm water and it plumps up and turns the water red.

"If I'm going to stripe a basket, I'll have a pound of material already soaked in water the color I want. Then I dry the weavers until I need them."

Webb uses about eight stains. The acorns and walnuts come from her own trees, and grapes are grown in her back yard; she gathers the berries from jaunts into the thick woods around her home.

Baskets with antlers as handles affect the shape of the baskets. Antlers are given to her or she'll buy them. They are run through the dishwasher then soaked in bleach water before being dried.

Feathers will sometimes adorn baskets. Webb collects peacock and chicken feathers from a neighbor. "When you live in the country, you make do with things," she explained.

Years of weaving baskets has affected Webb physically.

"It's hard on the hands and shoulders. You have to pull the weavers down tight to have a good sturdy basket. I've got arthritis in my fingers ... it's repetitive movement."

Being right-handed, Webb has an over-developed muscle in her right shoulder. She has to do exercises to counter its effect.

Webb says she's made thousands of baskets over the past 12 years, and remembers one month when she made at least 50.

"I had an order that went to a general store in Illinois and he wanted 50 baskets. I had them made before he needed them so I took them to the big Cape crafts show -- and sold every one. So I had to make 50 more."

Webb says she'll continue to make baskets as long as there's a demand for them.

"They've been so important throughout history," she said. "There was a time when you couldn't do without them."