Charles Ross, wood and Carolyn Zeitler, baskets

Charles Ross, following my wife to her new midwifery job with The International Refugee Camp at Site II South, Thailand, I taught English as a second language at Phanat Nikom refugee camp.

Coming back to the US brought us to Phoenix, Arizona where I took a woodworking/special education job in a private school for some very spoiled kids from very wealthy and well-placed families. For some of the students, the choice was this school or jail. It was quite a learning experience for me.

A further move to Paradise, California and another career change was too much so retirement was the next step. After building our home in Irish Beach, which took eight years for me to finish, we finally moved in permanently four years ago.

My two daughters were learning to play instruments at the local high school, so I took it upon myself to create music stands for them. It has now been 35 years of music stands of various designs until the present design was settled on. Music stands are only part of my present hobby.

We are honored to share Carolyn’s baskets again.

Carolyn has been a passionate student of Japanese culture, art and language for longer than she have been making baskets. In the spring of 2016, she spent three months in Japan studying the language and absorbing the culture. Carolyn’s new works incorporate her love of Japanese language, Japanese calligraphy, haiku, papermaking and pine needles, of course. She loves the new direction. It opens up a whole new way of using color, text and designs that was not possible just using pine needles.

It is her hope that when people look at her baskets, they will begin to look at pine needles and the beauty of trees in a whole new way.