Shana Knight
Eng 336.003
On Saturday September 18, 2010 at the upper quad of Frostburg State University, many students and locals came together to celebrate the Appalachian festival and the history of Western Maryland. The Appalachian festival was packed with many craftsman, musical performers, and good food. Many of the people who attended agreed that the festival was worth going to because all of the crafts and food there was original and you couldn’t find it at your local department or grocery store. According to the locals, they’ve been coming to the festival for years. Local Judy says “I love the apple butter and my daughters love the apple cider, we get it every year.” There were many crafts at the festival that were worth seeing, and buying. One stand in particular stood out to many, handmade baskets by Lori Senese.
Eng 336.003
On Saturday September 18, 2010 at the upper quad of Frostburg State University, many students and locals came together to celebrate the Appalachian festival and the history of Western Maryland. The Appalachian festival was packed with many craftsman, musical performers, and good food. Many of the people who attended agreed that the festival was worth going to because all of the crafts and food there was original and you couldn’t find it at your local department or grocery store. According to the locals, they’ve been coming to the festival for years. Local Judy says “I love the apple butter and my daughters love the apple cider, we get it every year.” There were many crafts at the festival that were worth seeing, and buying. One stand in particular stood out to many, handmade baskets by Lori Senese.
Lori Senese, a friendly local from Cumberland Maryland is passionate about what she does. Lori gladly expresses “I’ve been at the festival all day.” She says “I have been making baskets for 20 years.” She had a wonderful display table full of tasteful baskets. Her baskets were original, something that you couldn’t find at a store. Lori had baskets that have a mosaic base. The mosaic part of the baskets had pictures in them, which caught many eyes. Many people who walked by were amazed by her work. Lori Senese explained that she was “self-taught.” She gets her ideas for her baskets by sometimes looking online for new patters, but she says she comes up with most of them herself. Lori describes her baskets as “functional, because you can put a lot of stuff in them.” She was right; she had baskets to but wine in, baskets to put bread in, and what ever you want to put in them. They make great gifts.
Lori explained basket weaving process as time consuming. She said “It has to be something that you really want to do.” However she said baskets don’t take long, but the mosaic takes a couple of days. “The glue has to dry for a day then you have to shape the pieces of glass, and then let them sit another day.” She explained. Lori just really looks like she enjoys basket weaving, it’s her thing. In fact, she had her son sitting right next to her weaving a basket. “I’m in the process of teaching him, this isn’t his first basket though” she said as she laughed. Her son, unlike his mother said “this isn’t my thing, but I enjoy making them.”
So what is Lori doing now with her basket making gift? She has a website Http://lsenese.etsy.com and is also teaching classes. She is giving classes at Mountain City Traditional Arts, located on Main Street. “There are classes there for everyone” she says. If you aren’t into basket weaving and don’t know what you want to do, then you can take a class to find something that you enjoy doing. Loris passion for basket weaving struck many of the people who walked by as amazing. She loves what she does just like all of the other crafts people and musicians who were at the festival.
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