Gabriel Frey Baskets on Makers of Maine Podcast

“We have such a rich craft tradition here that I think it's sort of like one of the characteristics of Mainers is this ability to do more with less.” - Gabriel Frey

I have been waiting for the chance to have the amazing Gabriel Frey on the Makers of Maine podcast and I am so happy to bring you all this episode. Gabriel’s craft is Black Ash Basket Making, specifically utility baskets. This craft goes as far back in his family as 13 generations, can you believe that? I learned that their are two styles to basket making - utility and fancy. For fancy baskets, “its function, its utility, is to be beautiful, right? It's not to be used, it's to be admired.”

“Now, utility gets into how we lived, pre European contact, if that makes sense. One of the traditional sort of objects that you see that's sort of almost ubiquitous with the Maine outdoors is the pack basket. That shape was actually designed to fit in the hall of a canoe. Prior to European contact, all of our highways were rivers. And so, every family had a birch bark canoe, and you had to transport your stuff, whether it was like, what you were harvesting or just your goods.”

I learned about the different forms of baskets that the Wabanaki Tribe began making tied into the agriculture in their area. In Northern Maine, the Wabanaki piece of art that is used in the farm fields is the potato basket. Towards the coast of Maine, they made “scale baskets” which were used in fisheries. Gabriel shared with me that the potato baskets are about a foot wide and can hold close to 5 pounds of potatoes.

“So it was always like, this expression of culture. Part of what happens when you're making baskets with other community members, there are stories being passed down, you're using the language, you're not reliant on handouts from the federal government. So there are so many components built into the tradition of basket making that is both incredibly culturally important, but also economically as well.” - Gabriel Frey

Something so new to me, it just comes natural to Gabriel. He grew up around basketmaking. He described it as “just normal” and something that was “always there,” rather than realizing its real significance at the time. So when did he first notice this significance?

“It wasn't until I was around 18 and my grandfather was diagnosed with emphysema. I looked around and saw that there was a lot of this tradition that was being passed down, but he raised 13 kids fishing, doing carpentry and making baskets. As a kid, he would tell me that if I could make a basket, I would never go hungry. For him that that was that was a truth. Like, the difference between starvation of 12 kids was like whether he could do this because you can literally just walk out in the woods, cut down a tree, and there's wealth.”

He saw his grandfather as invincible before that moment, but he quickly realized he needed to pick up this craft from him before no one else did. I am so honored that Gabriel was gracious in sending me a basket that he made from his grandfather’s mold so I can see up close and bring it along for my dog sledding adventure.

He still uses what he learned from his grandfather and the way his grandfather taught him was from 1000s of years of refining the process. There is always a way to innovate and add a new element to pass on. He shares, “as Americans, we're sort of addicted to finding the easier path, but sometimes, the harder path produces the best product, right? So there are ways to break down the tree differently to get those splints to make the basket. But when you process it, from the tree, like the log itself, if the tree actually is growing in a spiral, those splints will come off the way that it was grown.”

Photographed by Frances Mahoney — Photographed by **Brendan Bullock**

We were able to discuss the entire basket-making process from start to finish. The part that really stuck out to me was the tools. He shared that the tools used are not something you can really buy, but something you have to make yourself or get from another artisan.

There is so much work that goes into each and every piece that Gabriel creates and each piece is unique in its own way, he has never made the same basket twice. “that is also something that I really love about it, that it takes a certain amount of pressure off because ultimately, whatever the basket wants to be is going to manifest right one way or another.”