Saturday / Sept 14th / 12-4pm
Rain Date: Sunday 
Lunch Served

Our first workshop with Poliana earlier this season was a huge success. Students went away feeling nourished, inspired and connected. We couldn't ask for more than that and are very excited to welcome her back for another creative workshop and communal making experience – Basket Weaving with Pine Bark. 

Baskets have been an integral part of Native American material culture for centuries. Native American baskets range from very simple to very elaborate. Often the art of basket making was passed down from generation to generation among Native American Indian mothers to their daughters. It is a skill that takes pride among many Indigenous people today.

Bark baskets made by Eastern Woodland Indians were used for cooking, gathering berries, hauling water, storing food, as cradleboards, and even for burying the dead. Most often baskets were made from pine, ash, or birch bark that was harvested in the spring when the bark was most pliable. The bark was then folded into the desired shape and sewn together with spruce root and rimmed with arrowwood or other natural materials.

Poliana Dănilă is a landscape designer, fiber artist, and educator who loves working with what the natural world gifts us. Originally from Romania, she grew up watching her parents and grandparents work in gardens, teach in schools, and spin/weave with wool from their sheep. Poliana’s exquisite hand-woven brooms were inspired by her grandmother, Ioana, who was an avid weaver who used a large floor loom to make unique tapestries. She has a bachelors and masters degree in Landscape Design & Horticulture and has studied weaving, knotting, plant dyeing, and handcrafted broom making with well-known artists at fiber studios in the Textile Art Center in Brooklyn/Manhattan, Fiber Craft Studio in Spring Valley and Upstate NY. She has taught her workshops at the New York Botanical Garden, the Roxbury Arts Group, and Mohonk Mountain House to name a few venues.

We are so pleased to invite you all to this workshop that we hope will inspire a greater connection to nature and each other. Through the act of basket weaving side-by-side, Poliana's workshop participants share stories, laugh, cry and remind us all of how communities sustain life and always have.

Of course it wouldn't be a Ravenwood event without the addition of a delicious meal. Guests will break for lunch selections from our cafe menu including:

~ Coffee & Tea
~ Iced Beverages
~ Farm Stand Salad
~ Savory Pastry
~ Sweet Treat

We hope you'll join us and help spread the word!

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Workshop Policies

Students can receive a full refund if cancellation takes place within 3 weeks of the workshop date. After this time, there can be no refunds but students are welcome to sell their tickets privately or pass along to a friend. Please notify us via info@ravenwoodny.com regarding new name on the reservation. Rain dates will occur the following Sunday after the scheduled Saturday workshop during the same time slot. Rain dates will be called at least 24hrs before the scheduled session start time. We will do everything possible to avoid cancellations, but occasionally, it does happen. In the case of cancellation, students will be refunded in full or offered credit for a later date workshop.