Wild Foraged Vine Basketry

This creative community invites you to slow down, connect with the landscape, and learn the art of weaving baskets from wild, responsibly sourced vines such as grapevine, honeysuckle, and other flexible plant fibers available seasonally. Together, we’ll explore how natural materials can be transformed into functional and beautiful objects using simple, accessible techniques.

This is a deeply hands-on, beginner-friendly experience designed to help you feel comfortable working with natural materials, even if you’ve never made anything like this before. As a creative community member, you will learn how to select, prepare, and shape vine materials and will create either a functional basket or a sculptural woven vessel based on your interests. Over three morning sessions, we will move from meeting and understanding the materials, into building strong forms, and finally into finishing and personalizing each piece. Along the way, we will discuss ethical foraging practices, seasonality, and the long history of basketry as one of humanity’s oldest and most universal art forms. The weaving process naturally encourages conversation, reflection, and connection.

My goal is to create a welcoming creative space where you can relax, try something new, and reconnect with both your creativity and the natural world around you. You will leave with a finished handcrafted piece, foundational weaving skills, and the confidence to continue working with natural materials beyond Creators Week.

About Katie Hayes

I am an artist, educator, and community program leader with over 20 years of experience designing and facilitating creative learning experiences in community, nonprofit, and outdoor education settings. My work centers on natural materials, hand-building processes, and helping people reconnect to creativity through hands-on, approachable making. I was first drawn to working with natural materials through time spent outdoors at summer camps and in rural environments, where creativity, nature, and independence were deeply connected. Those experiences shaped both my creative practice and my teaching style. Today, I work primarily with clay, fiber, and found natural materials, with a strong focus on traditional handcraft processes and place-based making. I have experience teaching arts and crafts, natural material projects, and hand-building techniques in both formal and informal settings. I have led community workshops, youth programming, creative camps, and public-facing art experiences, and I specialize in creating welcoming spaces where beginners feel comfortable trying something new while more experienced makers can explore personal expression. My teaching approach emphasizes patience, curiosity, and respect for both materials and people. I am especially passionate about helping participants slow down, build confidence, and experience the grounding and connective power of working with natural materials and traditional craft practices. I believe everyone is creative, and nature gives us some of the best tools to rediscover that.

Facilitator: Katie Hayes

Reservation Terms & Conditions

Deposits & Payment: Your deposit of $200 per person is required with your reservation request. Full payment is due at the end of your stay. We can now accept credit cards as final payment but prefer you pay by cash or check.

Changes & Cancellations: You must notify the registrar (registrar@3mile.org, 856-235-2210) or the summer managers (manager@3mile.org, 603-279-7626 after June 15) to change or cancel a reservation. You may substitute different named individuals with advance notice.

Cancellations in whole or in part are subject to the following Payment Terms:

50% of your applicable deposit will be refunded if you cancel all or part of your reservation prior to 30 days before your scheduled arrival.

You must pay the full amount if you cancel within 30 days of your scheduled arrival.

Consider purchasing trip insurance in case you need to cancel your reservation.

Camp Capacity: Camp capacity is fixed to protect the island’s fragile ecosystem. Additions to your reservation will be addressed on a space-available basis and are subject to additional deposit. You may not arrive at the camp with more guests than the number for whom you have reserved space unless you have received permission from the managers before your arrival.

Lottery Dates: The earliest date for submitting your reservations is January 1. All full-week reservation requests dated between Jan. 1 – Jan 15 will be given equal opportunity in the lottery. Partial week requests will be considered after May 1, space permitting.

Note: One reservation = one invoice. If you need SEPARATE INVOICES, please fill out a SEPARATE RESERVATION FORM and include a SEPARATE DEPOSIT CHECK for each invoice.

Membership: A valid AMC member number for each camper must be provided NOW to receive the lower member rate, otherwise campers will be billed at the non-member rate. Family Memberships include up to two adults and any children under 21 living in your household. This membership class does not include family members living outside of your household. Join the AMC here.

Cabin Limits & Preferences: There is a limit of 4 cabins/12 people per reservation. There are two beds per cabin. Cots are available to add a third person. Please be sure to provide at least 3 alternative preferences for both cabin and week. If your first choice is not available, we will try to accommodate your second choice, and if need be, your third choice.

Responsibility: The person named on the form is responsible for payment.

Return Policy

Your deposit of $200 per person is required with your reservation request. Full payment is due at the end of your stay. We can now accept credit cards as final payment but prefer you pay by cash or check.

Wild Foraged Vine Basketry

About Katie Hayes

Facilitator: Katie Hayes

Three Mile Island Camp

Reservation Terms & Conditions

Return Policy