Trained as a classical oboist,
M uhl w ove her first basket in
1984 as a w ay to occupy her
time w hen her son and daughter
w ere young. In 1990 she learned
coiling in a one-day w orkshop
put on by the Basketm akers o f
N ew Jersey (now the Penn-
Jersey Basketry Guild), a life-
changing experience.
“T h e next morning I started
coiling - 1 had to build a vessel -
and that was the beginning.
Since then I’ve learned to make
one continuous coil, coil back-
wards, split a piece into tw o or
three coils.”
M uhl w raps her taut coils
w ith threads o f w axed Irish
linen and sometimes ribbon to
add splashes o f color.
Initially she always used
gourds as bases (now they’re
optional, aesthetic choices),
coiling around them w hile hold-
ing to traditional symmetrical
shapes. One day, in the mid-'pos,
she was embellishing an angled
section o f a gourd and decided to
follow its flow, resulting in her
first asymmetrical piece.
“I was starting to get m ove-
ment and balance,” she says.
“W h en m y husband saw these
crazy-looking pieces he thought
I’d lost my mind - until they
w ere the first things to sell.”
From there M uhl fully
embraced a free-form contem -
porary aesthetic. She im pro-
vises every creation, designing
as she stitches.
Below:
Duet, 2005
sweetgrass, gourds,
ribbon, waxed linen,
beads, branches
18 x 30 x 19 in.
Below right:
Blue Spirals, 2007
sweetgrass, ribbon,
waxed linen
10.5 x 10 x 11 in.
