Wenaha Gallery to feature Lisa Kostelak

DAYTON—The Wenaha Gallery’s newest Art Event features the hand-woven baskets of Lisa Kostelak, an artisan from Colville, WA, who has been making baskets for more than 35 years. Her first intro to the craft was a class taken at a mall in Florida, and while that got her started, she has spent many hours learning the art.

There were no online instructional videos back then, and it was difficult finding actual hands-on learning from experts, so she plunged into books on the subject. Now, 35 years later, she teaches small classes for both beginners and experienced basket weavers in techniques of the craft.

Many of Kostelak’s baskets are made from rattan, a readily available material from Southeast Asia, which Kostelak describes as “lovely to work with.”

However, many of her other baskets are made from materials that she forages locally -- from her backyard, as well as from the Colville National Forest nearby. From her backyard, she sources willow, Juncus, and Red Osier, and fruit tree prunings. Tules, or rushes, come from a friend’s pond.

She gets cedar from private landowners who have damaged trees that need to be taken down. She strips off all the outer bark, then peels the tree’s inner bark or cambium layer. It is then coiled up and cured for a year before she soaks it and cuts it into strips ready for weaving.

In the Colville National Forest, she sustainably harvests bear grass, birch bark from dead trees, scouring rush, and whatever catches her eye, although she always asks before harvesting live material.

Kostelak’s Art Event begins Tuesday, April 20, and runs through Monday, May 17, at Wenaha Gallery, 210 E. Main, Dayton. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 9 to 5 and by appointment.