WELCOME to Nest by Tamara blog

WELCOME to Nest by Tamara blog
Hi- It's Tamara. I'm happy you've stopped by, and since 2010 I've been sharing my passion for interior design, history, art, entertaining, travel & fashion. I am an interior designer, textile designer and writer living and working in New York City and East Hampton, Long Island. My musings have taken me to international design, art, antique and epicurean events and I have lots to share. I'm grateful to have been listed as the #1 top design blog, blogs to watch, top design blogs and named and awarded Rising Star of Design by the IFDA NY industry organization. Please feel free to reach out to our team for an interior design consultation at NestbyTamara.com -Tamara

Friday's Why In Design Series: part three - the appeal and history of American baskets, wicker and rattan

Why do we love wicker in our interiors?
elle decor magazine  photo credit: Simon Upton
Glen Senk & Keith Johnson's PA Dutch Colonial
grape collecting vintage basket from Champagne valley
pottery barn offers lovely wicker baskets 
"A tisket a tasket 
a green and yellow basket"
photograph via stylemepretty.com
My love for wicker and rattan 
originated with these little Lightship Nantucket Baskets
I have been enamored with these precious Nantucket baskets since my early years when our family vacationed on the island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.  Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard are sister islands just off the coast of Cape Cod. Many residences in New England keep these baskets throughout their interiors as both decoration and functionality.  In addition, many proper Boston Brahmin ladies still carry them to market when shopping. Check out some other basket images on 
my Basket Pinterest Board
an antique Nantucket Lightship Basket fetches quite 
a price at auction
The History of the Nantucket Basket:
  Early settlers learned basket making from native Americans and the tradition continued for years.  During the whaling industry’s dwindling days of the later 1800s, ships sailed farther away to the Pacific to hunt for whales, often returning with an exotic material called rattan. The whalers passed the long hours away on the ship by making baskets to earn extra income.  The basket is woven in a mold of rattan (cane) with a wooden bottom.  Rattan is a jungle plant similar to bamboo and in Nantucket became the main source for making baskets.  Later, artisans crafted the baskets out of reed with wooden buttons and then hand carved whale bone for a special feature.  
 
1856 Nantucket Lightship
photograph via the Nantucket Basket
I keep this extra large basket under my painted 
Chinoiserie hall table in our beach cottage
  
Mecox Gardens carries a beautiful basket collection made by a group of women weavers in India to help other impoverished women in the area.   Using handspun dyed woven cotton, banana and mesthea with leather these bags/baskets offer great storage solutions in a stylish package.  With leather handles they are very sturdy and offered in classic blue and white colors.  They are available online or in select shops.
with Easter just around the corner...
I need to start thinking about our Easter basket gifts.
Happy Nesting 
XO Tamara