Half Moon Baskets

Come weave a Twill Willow Bark Berry Basket with us Friday evening at Pioneer Lodge in Red Deer.

https://www.halfmoonbaskets.com/weekend-of-weaving-september-2026 -berry-basket-willow-bark

Beginner. Approachable, and short enough to finish without putting too much strain on your hands.

Twill is where a plain over-and-under becomes a pattern. You keep track of where you are in the sequence, the rhythm settles in, and a woven texture starts appearing under your hands.

Willow bark is the material here: leather-like, flexible, and forgiving if you need to undo a row.

Saturday has sold out, but there’s still room to join us Friday evening.

Friday, September 25
6–10 PM

Pioneer Lodge, Red Deer

Come weave a Wild-Woven Willow Bark Bowl with us at Pioneer Lodge in Red Deer.

https://www.halfmoonbaskets.com/weekend-of-weaving-september-2026 -weave-willow-bark

Gentle Beginner. No experience needed. All tools and materials are provided.

Wet a strip of willow bark and it bends like leather, soft enough to fold and strong enough to hold its shape.

You’ll weave a wild-woven bowl from bark I harvested and prepared, and we’ll talk through how to find and identify willow, how to harvest the bark responsibly, and how to dry and store it for winter.

Friday, September 25
12–4 PM · 2 spots left

Saturday, September 26
12–4 PM · 3 spots left

Pioneer Lodge, Red Deer

Come weave a Random Weave Bulrush Basket with us at Pioneer Lodge in Red Deer.

https://www.halfmoonbaskets.com/weekend-of-weaving-september-2026 -weave-bulrush

Gentle Beginner. No experience needed. All tools and materials are provided.

Bulrush gives easily. Wet it and it folds softly around your fingers, which makes it one of the gentlest ways into basketry.

In this workshop, you’ll build a random weave basket from gathered bulrush and let the form find its own shape. No pattern to follow and nothing to count. Just the material and where it wants to go.

Friday, September 25
10 AM–2 PM · 2 spots left

Saturday, September 26
9 AM–1 PM · Plenty of room

Pioneer Lodge, Red Deer

Come weave a Cattail Berry Basket with us Sunday morning at Pioneer Lodge in Red Deer.

https://www.halfmoonbaskets.com/weekend-of-weaving-september-2026 -berry-basket

Gentle Beginner. No experience needed. All tools and materials are provided.

The cattails that line our marshes turn out to carry berries beautifully.

We’ll spend the morning weaving green cattail leaves over a wooden form, working a checkerboard weave, pairing and waling, and finishing with a simple trac border.

Cattail is light in the hand and builds real structure once it’s on the form.

Sunday, September 27
8:30 AM–12:30 PM
Pioneer Lodge, Red Deer

Big, twisting, and a little unruly, this is one of my favourite baskets to teach to beginners.

You only need to learn two weaves: a pairing weave for the base, then a three-rod wale that climbs round and round, all the way up the sides. That one wale, carried the whole way, gives the basket its twisted rope look.

It takes a lot of willow and a little patience, and every basket finds its own shape.

In 2025, we gathered at to weave these big twisted willow baskets. These are a few of them, stacked together at the end of the weekend.

This October, we’re weaving them again.

Join us at Folk Tree Lodge in Bragg Creek, Alberta, October 16–18 for a weekend of forest air, firelight, slow meals, and plenty of time with our hands in the willow.

Find all the details here:
⁠https://www.halfmoonbaskets.com/weave-and-nourish-october-2026

Or, if you’d like to hear about future workshops and gatherings, you can join my newsletter here:
⁠https://www.halfmoonbaskets.com/email

Come weave with us!
Event details at: https://luma.com/dgbsslrz
Weaving details at: https://www.halfmoonbaskets.com/good-note-harvest-festival

Good Note Festivals are pay-what-you-can and all revenue goes directly to the artists. Why? We really just want to celebrate and party with all of you! We don't want anyone to not come come for financial reasons and the more people that come, the more fun we have. If you are in a position to offer more, our fantastic musicians really appreciate it.

The festival is also 100% volunteer run and the Borch family (*Kevin) donates the sound gear rental and any other extra costs.
It's really a community coming together to share music, dance, celebration, art and - new this fall - apple pressing!

Something that helps the event planning is when people buy tickets in advance. Feel free to give a nominal amount online and top-up with cash at the event if you prefer.
Get your ticket at: https://luma.com/dgbsslrz

Our opening act for the 2026 Harvest Festival: Riot and Wilhelow!

Wilhelow and Riot are two young q***r musicians, located in Edmonton. They started playing together a little over a year ago, and are ecstatic to be on this musical journey together. The music they play is mainly based in pop and folk, and while they do mostly covers, there are some originals thrown in there that will definitely get you feeling and swaying to the beat.

Check out more details at Good Note Harvest Festival 2026

Bubbles, Willow & Plant Dyeing—Oh My!

It’s been a beautiful day at Wild Roses Festival 🤍

Such a lovely day. Thank you, Fern's School of Craft 😘

With Weaving Connections behind us, it is time to start dreaming of summer.

Where will you gather this year?

This summer solstice, June 18–22, I’ll be travelling to the Earth Daughters Festival in Golden, BC.

This will be my first big journey outside of the province to weave, and I am immensely honoured to be invited into their gathering and to spend time with their community.

I will be joined by Mandy Leigh and Michelle Christine in weaving a willow casket, as well as offering opportunities for people to weave their own small willow vessels to bring home with them.

If you are curious about willow and weaving, and would like to spend a weekend surrounded by women, mountains, and meadow grass, I encourage you to visit their website and see what they have planned for this year’s gathering:
https://www.earthdaughtersfestival.com

If you decide to come and would like to join in the weaving, send us a message.

There will be much work before us, and many hands are welcome.