Park project in Cazenovia re-connects with CNY willow weaving tradition
By Laura Hand
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 at 7:00 p.m.
CAZENOVIA --
Bonnie Gale has been a willow artist for years, starting by learning basket weaving, and then teaching the craft. These days, she does living willow installations. Her latest work is on Mill Street in Cazenovia, reclaiming an area that looks weedy and overgrown, at first glance.
But, says Gale, this wetland was a willow patch where the Liverpool weavers harvested their raw materials, coming to Cazenovia by train.Willow weaving was a boom industry for Liverpool, with what look like barns or garages behind many village homes: whole families worked over the winters in the willow weaving sheds. In 1900, Liverpool produced 3/4 of the laundry baskets in use in the United States, as well as other baskets and wicker ware. It's an industry that collapsed in the 1920s for an eerily modern reason: the country started importing cheaper baskets from overseas.
The Cazenovia reclamation project involves Gale, SUNY ESF, which designed the new park, including recycled Cazenovia sidewalks for walkways along the green spaces, and Cazenovia High School, whose students helped 'weave' the live willows and plant them. Cazenovia Preservation Society manages the land that is the park.
Phase One, already done, includes 'fedges' -- fence-hedges made by weaving and tying rows of willows-- and a willow tunnel, with the arch made of living willows. A stream running through the lot adds to the serenity and natural setting. Phase Two is still on the drawing boards, but Gale hopes it will include making charcoal at the high school from harvested willows, with the charcoal to be used for drawing in arts classes--truly recycling the product.
