Pine Needle Group Gallery

The Pine Needle Group was begun in 1998, the brainchild of Pamela Zimmerman, a stay at home mother who was teaching herself to coil with the help of a book. The book contained beautiful baskets, but her efforts seemed lacking somehow. Zimmerman searched for a teacher or guild near where she lived in eastern North Carolina, USA, but could find none. She was told "you can find anything online..." So, buying her first home computer, exploring the worldwide web, she was disappointed to find there did not seem to be people already talking about this ancient basketry process, coiling. There were basketry groups, but most of the information pertained to other forms of basketry, using reed in flat or round forms, not coiling. Only 2 months after Zimmerman arrived on the internet, she decided she needed to make a place online for coilers, and the Pine Needle Group was born. Over it's now eleven year history, the Pine Needle Group has evolved and changed. Many basketmakers have credited this website and the people who are active on it with renewing the popularity of the technique of coiling. When the Pine Needle Group was just beginning, pine needle baskets were considered old-fashioned and very few teachers were active. Now, every major basketry convention, seminar and gathering seems to abound with teachers and new students, spiraling their first coiled basket. The group has at times had over 2,000 members, from all over the world. Most of the members are from the US, but we have had active participants from the UK, Argentina, Canada, Sweden, and Germany. Pamela Zimmerman, the group's founder, is still active in the Pine Needle Group. She continues to write and maintain this website, which has, over the years, contained several thousand pages of Html, as well as tens of thousands of images. Her personal art website is PamelaZimmerman.net. Pamela has become one of the leading experts in coiled technique, particularly minature horsehair baskets.