Dunbar Gardens

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Dunbar Gardens Handcrafted willow baskets by Katherine Lewis from farm grown willows in the Pacific Northwest.

Katherine Lewis is a willow basketmaker in the Skagit Valley of Washington State, USA. She has a small farm where she and her husband Steve Lospalluto grow much of the willow used in her baskets allowing her to choose the quality, color, and texture of her weaving materials. Katherine’s goal is to weave willow baskets that are functional and durable while reflecting the natural beauty of the willows. Katherine’s baskets are in use in hundreds of homes across the country. In 2011, she was honored to have several of her baskets acquired by the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of the Cole-Ware collection of American baskets. Please visit our website to find out more about Katherine’s willow baskets, willow cuttings, our small farm in the Pacific Northwest, and how to buy our products.

Katherine was teaching at the North House Folk School North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota as part of thei...
10/14/2026

Katherine was teaching at the North House Folk School North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota as part of their Basket Week 2026. Her classes included a willow bark tray woven with two layers of bark and a round willow gathering basket with bark for the side weavers as a different look. Katherine and the students were fortunate to have Jo Campbell Amsler Jo Campbell-Amsler assist in teaching both classes. Katherine also gave a presentation on her willow weaving and our farm. It was great to see old friends, meet new ones and gather in a beautiful place.

Katherine has this willow bark basket in the Art’s Alive show in nearby La Conner this weekend. Always a great show. Swi...
10/02/2026

Katherine has this willow bark basket in the Art’s Alive show in nearby La Conner this weekend. Always a great show. Swipe to see two views of this basket. It’s about 7.5” height by 6.25” wide.

Last Sunday Radha and Cindy came by the farm to do some weaving and other willow talk. Katherine and Radha who works as ...
09/25/2026

Last Sunday Radha and Cindy came by the farm to do some weaving and other willow talk. Katherine and Radha who works as Marrowstone Willow were discussing some potential baskets to co-teach at next year’s NWBW retreat. Cindy and Katherine are on the organizing committee for Willow Fest Northwest so they always have things to discuss. Everyone had to finish on their own as the summer days get shorter.

Some photos from this year’s garden including some of the willows. If you have followed us for awhile, you might know th...
09/09/2026

Some photos from this year’s garden including some of the willows. If you have followed us for awhile, you might know that we used to sell vegetables from the farm. Having a large garden is hard to let go of even when you have health and old age to deal with.
The end of August and beginning of September is that seasonal transition when the summer crops peak and the fall and winter vegetables have to get growing. It’s a sit back and watch the willows by this time.

Zinnias and cosmos light up the summer.

Sunflowers which have already turned into giant seed heads for the birds since this was taken a couple weeks back.

Plenty of beans including many for shelling. Oh and the hummingbirds like them too.

Winter vegetables like radicchio and purple sprouting broccoli.

Some more winter greens like chard, kale and collards.

Some of the willows next to the veg and flowers.

Picking beans three days after lung surgery to remove cancer. Nice to have a garden to hide out in when healing.

Comfy spot for a Pacific tree frog.

Onions for storage.

The cat helping out?

The living willow fence.

The living willow hut.

A ladder top view of the coppiced willows.

A 360 view of the main garden area.

Some recent willow baskets Katherine has made from willows grown on our small farm in the Skagit Valley in the Pacific N...
09/04/2026

Some recent willow baskets Katherine has made from willows grown on our small farm in the Skagit Valley in the Pacific Northwest. Swipe for more.


One of Katherine’s garden baskets now in Seattle.

Zig zag side weave oval for Seattle customer.

Another garden basket for a California wedding gift.

Spare blanket basket for a home in Walla Walla.

A potluck basket soon off to New York.

Irish potato basket in the Joyce country style.

Large oval laundry or storage basket.

Large oval laundry or storage basket.

Another fitched shopper.

Katherine had a great class at BARN on Bainbridge Island this past weekend with 8 students making a potluck style basket...
09/01/2026

Katherine had a great class at BARN on Bainbridge Island this past weekend with 8 students making a potluck style basket. Most were learning new techniques like cutting scalloms and oval bases. Look closely and you can see some nice baskets (though not all were finished with trimming yet). All made with willows grown on our farm of course. Willow basketry in the Pacific Northwest is becoming quite popular.

Two new openwork oval arm baskets or fitched market baskets as we call them. One has a solid base and one has a fitched ...
08/22/2026

Two new openwork oval arm baskets or fitched market baskets as we call them. One has a solid base and one has a fitched base and both are made from the willow variety Whissender which has a beautiful color and great fragrance. Second photo pairs the fitched base basket with one made with peeled Whissender that Katherine made before her class at Willow Fest Northwest. .

One of Katherine’s large Irish skibs is part of the current virtual basket exhibit of National Basketry Organization mem...
08/10/2026

One of Katherine’s large Irish skibs is part of the current virtual basket exhibit of National Basketry Organization members work online. She titled it “Skagit Sunset” (we live in Skagit Valley). There are many interesting art works to look at in the photo gallery. Jurors gave out quite a few awards too. Unfortunately there wasn’t an award for best basket hanging on the side of an artist’s barn. The first photo is the one submitted and the second is the basket hanging in our house today. Nice thing about a virtual exhibit is not having to ship a large 32 inch diameter basket. All of those colors are of course willows that we grow and coppice here where we’re always inspired by nature and traditional basketry. Link to exhibit: nationalbasketry.org/exhibitions/every-1-2026/

Flashback to August 2015 when Katherine had an exhibit of her baskets at the Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Arts Muse...
08/07/2026

Flashback to August 2015 when Katherine had an exhibit of her baskets at the Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum in nearby La Conner. She had a nice variety of her work available for it. Over the years she has had baskets in many different group exhibits at the museum. Although she doesn’t have a piece in the upcoming International Quilt & Fiber Arts Festival in September, she will be demonstrating her basketry there on Sunday the 27th in Maple Hall.

Katherine is on her way to teach for four days at Willow Fest Northwest. In the past week she made a couple of paniers à...
07/22/2026

Katherine is on her way to teach for four days at Willow Fest Northwest. In the past week she made a couple of paniers à jour for samples for that half of the class time. You can see the finished baskets in photo 2. Two different base styles that could be made. Although they are different in size, they are made on a base hoop the same size. The white basket was made from mostly peeled Whissender which won’t be an option in the class. We also loaded a third one into the car this morning that you can see in photo 3. That one was originally made for a “hands on” exhibit at the Renwick Gallery back in 2013. Last photo shows all of the willows getting loaded for the class. Lots of small rods for the rope coil weave baskets leaning up against the back. Quite a haul on a hot day here in the Pacific Northwest. Weaving begins tomorrow!

Address

16586 Dunbar Road
Mount Vernon, WA
98273

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 4pm
Tuesday 10am - 4pm
Wednesday 10am - 4pm
Thursday 10am - 4pm
Friday 10am - 4pm
Saturday 10am - 4pm
Sunday 10am - 4pm

Telephone

+13604283076

Website

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