April Stone is a basket weaver, who is a member of the Bad River Band of

Lake Superior Chippewa The Lake Superior Chippewa (Anishinaabe: Gichigamiwininiwag) are a large number of Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) bands living around Lake Superior; this territory is considered part of northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota in the United States. They ...

(

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

) from Wisconsin. Stone is a full-time artisan who teaches classes and sells her baskets all over the Midwest.

Early life

April Stone started working with

black ash Black ash is a common name for several plants and may refer to: * '' Acer negundo'', native to North America * ''Fraxinus nigra'', native to North America * ''Eucalyptus sieberi ''Eucalyptus sieberi'', commonly known as the silvertop ash or bl ...

in 1998 with her then-husband Jarod Dahl after taking classes at North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota. She attributes her interest in and passion for black ash basketry to her experience of fixing Dahl's broken basket that had become his daily lunch bag. Not finding any black-ash basket-weavers in her tribe or community, she taught herself to weave through reading books and studying baskets in museum collections. Stone and Dahl together created the business Woodspirit Handcraft in which they created traditional

basketry Basket weaving (also basketry or basket making) is the process of weaving or sewing pliable materials into three-dimensional artifacts, such as baskets, mats, mesh bags or even furniture. Craftspeople and artists specialized in making baskets ...

and kitchen wares combining their Objibwe and Scandinavian roots.

Work

Stone's basket-making is inspired by natural resources and living off the land. She harvests the black ash by hand through a process of pounding a freshly-cut log until the rings of the tree delaminate into splints of rough material which is then split and processed into strips for weaving. As well as utilitarian and functional objects, Stone uses her work to speak about the devastation of the black ash tree as a result of the emerald ash borer, an

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

. In 2015 she received a Regional Artist Fellowship from the

Native Arts and Cultures Foundation The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation (NACF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that supports Native American artists, culture bearers, and Native-led arts organizations, providing them with support through fellowships and project funding. ...

to create an ash burial basket as a tribute to the dying black ash Tree. Woven partially in a public space with the help of dozens of community members, Stone spent over 100 hours creating this burial basket which was acquired by the

Minnesota Historical Society The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) is a nonprofit educational and cultural institution dedicated to preserving the history of the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was founded by the territorial legislature in 1849, almost a decade before statehoo ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, April Living people American basket weavers Bad River Band people Crafts educators Women woodworkers 21st-century woodworkers American women basket weavers Native American basket weavers Weavers from Wisconsin Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American artists 21st-century American women artists 20th-century American artists 20th-century American women artists Artists from Wisconsin 20th-century Native American women 20th-century Native American artists 21st-century Native American women 21st-century Native American artists Ojibwe women artists Ojibwe artists