Monica Graham | A Tisket, a Tasket…

Baskets by Monica Graham

Like many people, Monica’s first brush with scale miniatures came as a child through her brothers’ interests in model trains, boats and planes. And like many, that interest was left behind with childhood, only to be reawakened as a result of a chance encounter with a room box at a local farmer’s market. What a room box was doing at a farmer’s market, I have no idea, but it started the wheels moving again, and an old love was rediscovered.

Coiled Horsehair Basket by Monica Graham

By that point Monica had moved on to other interests, and, as her miniature skills improved, she began to think about integrating one of them, basket weaving, into her new, dollhouse-sized world. Through trial and error, Monica hunted out the materials that would allow her to weave convincingly realistic miniature baskets in a variety of styles and shapes. She has found it very intriguing to learn how baskets have played a role in so many cultures and periods of human existence. While she enjoys all the different techniques that make up the art of basket weaving, Monica is particularly proud of her coiled horsehair baskets which are patterned after Native American originals and are made from horsehair harvested from the antique violin bow which her grandfather used to use. It was the only horsehair she could find that was fine enough for work in this scale.

Monica is a brand new Artisan and  a dealer at the Guild Show for the first time this weekend.