Sunday, October 29, 2006

Bob Gelinas sits with a few of his creations. (Lynn Martin Graton, NH State Council on the Arts/Courtesy photos)

The Shaker saying, "Do your work as if you had a thousand years to live and as if you were to die tomorrow," exemplifies their ideal of perfection.

Perhaps, in preserving the traditional art of Shaker black ash basket making, a perfectionist is best suited to the job.

Bob Gelinas of Farmington creates black ash baskets, employing the Shaker method. He spoke about his art in an interview. "What sets [Shaker baskets] apart is really the kind of symmetry of the baskets," Gelinas said.

"For me, it's like, there's a perfectionist side of me and this kind of fits right in."

Lynn J.M. Graton, Traditional Arts Coordinator for the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts notes that Gelinas is a part of a very small — "You can count them on one hand" — group preserving the art form of ash basket making.

"Bob's work is exquisite," says Graton. "He creates his own standard. Bob is really devoted to preserving basket forms made by the Shakers. And that he does it with such a level of craftsmanship."

For Gelinas, this devotion began in 1995, when he and his wife visited Canterbury Shaker Village.

"You go on the tours and you see the old baskets ... and it just really intrigued me ... I think I just kind of fell in love with the symmetry."

Gelinas started taking classes in basket making, beginning with reed baskets.

"The first class," Gelinas said, "I wrote everything down and I was thinking, you know, I think I might want to do this."

At the end of the class, Gelinas bought materials to make another basket. The very next day, he did just that.

But it was the Shaker baskets Gelinas was attracted to. Continuing to visit Canterbury village, he said, "I just saw those baskets over there and [thought] 'those are the baskets I want to make.'"

Gelinas began to teach himself how to take the wood from a black ash log and turn it into weaving material.

"There was a lot of trial and error," Gelinas said, in teaching himself the craft.

A few years later, he began demonstrating at Canterbury Village. Now Gelinas sells his baskets at Canterbury Village and on his website.

"Canterbury Village is a wonderful place to go," Gelinas said. "For me, it's really peaceful up there and it's really invigorating and to be an artist and actually go where they made all these baskets, it's really inspiring."

For the Shakers, part of perfectionism was an economy of effort; simplicity was key.

The Shakers refined basket making in the use of molds. Working as a community, the women would weave the basket bodies, which would then be taken out to the wood shop, where the men would bend handles and rims.

Body copy:Working at his home in Farmington where he lives with his wife and family, Gelinas creates baskets from start to finish.

The first step is procuring a black ash log.

Graton notes that one of the big challenges for traditional artists is harvesting materials. "It's hugely labor intensive," she says, requiring knowledge of "how an ash tree grows, where an ash tree grows," and how to cut one down.

In the beginning, Gelinas invested a lot of time learning about black ash, but these days, he gets the wood primarily from loggers.

The next step for Gelinas is pounding the black ash log so that the "splints" will lift. Splints, each the thickness of one growth ring, become the weaving material of the basket.

Strips of wood about an inch or an inch and a half wide are then soaked in water.

The Shakers used two types of finishes on black ash baskets. One method is to sand both sides of the strips. In the other method, a knife is used to split strips down the middle. The inside surface of these split strips is called the "satin" side. When used for the outside of a basket, the satin side lends a natural sheen.

The natural finish of the wood baskets has a patina that becomes richer with age.

To weave the basket, Gelinas uses traditional Shaker molds, wooden block forms shaped like upside-down baskets.

The strips that go around the outside of a basket are called "weavers." The strips that run vertically are called "uprights," or "spokes."

Gelinas begins weaving with the spokes. The bottom is then tacked onto the mold, and the strips are dampened. Then Gelinas begins weaving the sides.

Next is the false rim, which holds the basket together.

Finally, Gelinas makes the handles and rims for his baskets.

Gelinas uses cherry for his basket handles. He selects pieces with interesting grain to complement the basket. To bend the wood, he steams it. While the wood is still hot, he bends it and holds it with clamps. He then lets the handle dry for a day.

The handles are the only part of the basket Gelinas treats. "The black ash you don't treat at all because it's a wood that needs to breathe and in order to get that nice patina ... you really can't treat it with anything."

He smoothes the handles with sand paper, then uses tung oil for finish.

Gelinas tapers the sides of basket handles, creating his own signature look. Finally, he lashes the handles and rims into the false rim.

"It's just basically sewing it so that it will all stay together."

Gelinas has demonstrated his art at the Canterbury Shaker Village, Strawberry Banke and the Newmarket Heritage Festival.

Having a background in sales, Gelinas says, he is comfortable talking with people.

"My feeling is that part of what I do is not just make baskets, but it's to educate people on somewhat of a lost art.

"Our society is so much different now," he added, "We consume, we consume and we're kind of a throw away society, whereas the Shakers, the way they approached basket making or anything they did, they made things with the idea that they needed to last a thousand years ... the quality and value had to be there.

"I almost look at it like a nice sweater that you might buy in Ireland ... you may wear it for years and it may get a little ragged, but it's that one sweater that you really enjoy when it's cold and you're sitting in front of a fire and you don't want to get rid of it."

Gelinas enjoys helping others and feels the best way to learn is as he did, through trial and error.

"People won't learn why you're doing something if you tell them everything. My feeling is that if you're really going to do something, whether it's basket making or woodworking, you've got to put your time in. To really learn your craft. So that you become an expert in what you do. It's all about evolving. You evolve with time."

Gelinas is looking to future projects, including a possible line of picnic baskets, incorporating the work of other artists, such as potters and glassblowers. He is also experimenting with a line of pocketbooks.

And he continues striving for perfection.

"The handles," Gelinas says, "I'm constantly looking to make those better and more beautiful, whether it's the grain of the wood or the way I carve it...I'm constantly looking to refine what I'm doing.

"It's just fun to make something from scratch. I enjoy it."