Basketm aker
Debora
M u h l turns
sweetgrass into
sculpture,
deconstructing
traditional
form s into
tw isting,
w ild works.
&
kr'tS
Above:
Blue Majesty, 2009
sweetgrass, ribbon,
waxed linen
13 x 12 in. dia.
Left:
»
t
W
Chaos, 2009
sweetgrass, ribbon,
H i
' r
® r ^ i :
waxed linen
/
12 x 17 x 14 in.
"
V
,
x
%
SPA C E H A S B E C O M E AS IM P O R -
tant to basketm aker Debora
M uhl as the fluid coils o f sw eet-
grass she fills it with.
“It’s this house; it’s so light and
airy. See all the air?” she says,
m otioning toward the space
betw een her outstretched arm
and the vaulted ceiling in her sun-
ny downstairs studio. “It’s really
affected me. I’m playing w ith
much larger em pty areas now .”
A fte r decades o f w orking
from the attic o f a Victorian
home in Spinnerstown, Penn-
sylvania, M uhl m oved to N orth
Carolina in 2009 w hen her hus-
band took a job transfer. The
couple bought a contem porary
home just east o f Greensboro
w hose unobstructed rooms con-
trasted w ith her form er resi-
dence’s closed-off chambers.
“This house opened m y mind
to so many possibilities in my
w ork ,” she says.
Surrounding her is the proof
- sculptural baskets sliced and
spliced, and structures that
appear m ore like physics exper-
iments than vessels, including
one that starts w ith a small,
tight base before spilling into a
cascade o f loose, looping coils,
like a drunken ring toss. She
places some baskets in “nests”
o f equally contorted branches
o f a filbert shrub called H arry
Lauder’s w alking stick.
A las, M uhl, 54, was soon
to part w ith her muse. In the
fall o f 2011, she and her husband
