Saturday

Ponderosa Pine Needle Basket with Ceramic Hummingbird Centerpiece


An earthenware hummingbird is the centerpiece for this 4 3/4" diameter 2 3/4" deep Ponderosa Pine Needle Basket.


Grizzly Mountain Arts creates their Ponderosa Pine Needle Baskets from start to finish.
As soon as the snow melts in the upper elevations, Dave and Jo start their pine needle gathering expeditions in the Ochoco National Forest in central Oregon. Great care is taken in the collection of just the perfect needles, which are then taken home and dried. After the right amount of drying time has elapsed, the needles are then soaked and allowed to dry until they have just the right amount of moisture to allow for handling. Sometimes, at this point in the process, we dye the pine needles a variety of colors. Artificial sinew is our material of choice for stitching our baskets. It is just about as strong a material as you can find and closely resembles the real sinew used in many old Native American baskets.

We choose to not seal our baskets with wax or shellac. The great Native American basket weavers of long ago would use pitch to seal their baskets intended to hold water. We think you will enjoy, like we do, being able to pick up your basket and smell the forest.


Unfortunately, we cannot sell our baskets outside of the U.S. because of the laws regarding the export of plant materials.


FREE shipping is our way of saying "Thank You!" for shopping with Grizzly Mountain Arts on Etsy!


If you would like to view more of our ceramic items, please visit our Good Dirt Jewelry Etsy shop!

Wednesday

Lacemaking Lazy Susan Fiber Art Tools


Dave has made five, beautiful lacemaking Lazy Susan fiber art tools. They each have a cotton darning needle with a large eye for easy threading inset at a 45 degree angle in one end. Besides it's use in lacemaking, a Lazy Susan tool can be used while doing embroidery work and other forms of fiber art.


Shipping is FREE and a gift box is included! These fiber art tools are currently available in the Fiber Art Tool section of our Etsy shop.

Handcrafted Oak and Rosewood Spool Knitter


Dave handmade this 4 inch spool knitter and loop lifter out of oak and dark rosewood. He has burn etched an oak leaf motif all the way around it. This spool knitter, which can also be called a knitting nancy or knitting tower, has 4 brass pins that will not rust. This piece has been initialed and dated by Dave.


An additional photo can be seen at the Ebay auction listing for this item.

Sunday

Lightweight 0.8 oz Bottom Whorl Drop Spindle


Dave turned this 0.8 oz bottom whorl drop spindle out of Birch wood. The stem is white birch and the whorl is made of Strata-Bond, which is dyed laminated layers of birch bonded together under high pressure. The overall length is 11 ¼ inches and the whorl is 2 ¼ inches in diameter. He has inset a brass bumper at the bottom and carved a yarn hook at the top. The whorl and stem were turned together in the lathe and are therefore well balanced with no wobble. It can be used as a drop spindle or as a supported spindle. More photos of this beautiful drop spindle can be found at the Ebay auction.

Box Elder Tatting Lace Crochet Picot Hook


On this tool, Dave used a size 6 (1.80 mm) steel crochet hook inset into a stem he turned from dyed box elder burl. He usually uses smaller hooks, but this single hook happened to show up in an order by mistake. The overall length of this tool, which is currently up for auction on Ebay, is 4 ½ inches.

Saturday

Tulipwood Pattern Pricker Pin Vise


Dave has handcrafted this 2 1/4 inch pattern pricker pin vise from colorful Tulipwood. It comes in a gift box ready for Christmas, and is currently up for auction on Ebay. You can also view more photos at the auction listing.

Wednesday

Leopardwood Russian Style Spindle


Dave hand crafted this Russian style spindle out of Leopardwood which is a very dense and heavy wood. This spindle is 11 ¼ inches long and weighs 48g (1.7 oz).


Russian style spindles are used for traditional hand spinning of fine yarn such as Cashmere, Yak, Bison, and similar short stapled, fine fibers. They are used with a spinning base support such as wood or ceramic bowl that the base of the spindle can spin freely in. They vary in length and weight according to the spinning task such as very fine yarn and plying of several colors of yarns.


This beautiful handmade Russian spindle is currently up for auction on Ebay.

Sunday

More New Pine Needle Baskets on Etsy!


Yes, we're still at it! :) We've been busy as bees photographing our newest baskets so we can post them in our Grizzly Mountain Arts Etsy shop. The four Ponderosa pine needle baskets shown above, plus one other, can be found here as well as additional photos of each basket.

Thursday

New Pine Needle Baskets and Plates

We have just added five new hand coiled Ponderosa pine needle baskets and plates to our Grizzly Mountain Arts Etsy shop. If you would like to read more about these five new baskets, please click here to visit the pine needle basket section of our shop.

Holy Land Olive Wood Lace Bobbin Pillow Pin Tool


Dave has hand crafted this pin pusher/lifter lace pillow tool out of Bethlehem Olive Wood from the Holy land. It is approximately 4 ¾ inches overall length and is currently up for auction on Ebay.

Holy Land Olive Wood Bobbin Lace Lazy Susan Set


Dave has hand crafted this set of Lazy Susan lace tools out of Bethlehem Olive wood from the Holy land. They are each approximately 5 ¾ inches overall length, including the needle. On these, he used cotton darner needles which have the larger eyes for easier threading--one he bent at an angle, and the other he has left straight.


This Olive wood set is currently up for auction on Ebay.

Wednesday

Acrylic Pin Vise Lace Bobbin Pattern Pricker

Red Acrylic Pin Vise Lace Bobbin Pattern Pricker

Dave handcrafted this 2 inch pattern pricker pin vise from colorful acrylic stock. The color is a deep red with black swirls polished to a glass finish. The photo just doesn't do this piece justice!

This stunning fiber art tool is currently up for auction on Ebay, where you can also view one additional photo.

Handcrafted Double Ended Afghan Crochet Hook Set H-K

Handcrafted Double Ended Afghan Crochet Hook Set H-K

Dave has hand crafted this set of double ended afghan hooks out of white birch. They include four of the most popular yarn sizes used for crocheting afghans. Each has the size burn etched into the stem, H (5.00mm), I (5.50 mm), J (6.00 mm) and K (6.50 mm). He also burn etched a fern pattern on each hook.

These beautiful hooks come in a gift box ready for Christmas and are currently up for auction on Ebay.

Monday

Acrylic Pin Vise Lace Bobbin Pattern Pricker

Acrylic Pin Vise Lace Bobbin Pattern Pricker

WE’RE BACK!
After 3 weeks and a nearly 5,000 mile road trip vacation it’s now time to relax and get some real rest and get back to the business of creating.

Dave's first item crafted is this 2 inch acrylic pattern pricker pin vise. The color is called Retro-Gold which has a mix of black, amber and gold color acrylic flecks. There are two additional photos to view at the Ebay auction listing for this beautiful fiber art tool.

Please stay tuned to our blog since it will take a little time to get back up to full speed. If you'd like to see a few photos of where we've been, please click here to visit our Flickr portfolio.