Kudzu is not your everyday artistic medium.
But for 14 years now Pam Buchanan has been weaving baskets, Christmas ornaments and birdhouses out of what some call "the vine that ate the South."
Given kudzu's ready availability in the wild, Buchanan has no need to cultivate it.
When she wants some, she asks people whether she can harvest some from their property. At first, they may give her a quizzical look. But, once they see that she's serious, they are only too happy to let her have it.
"It's about time somebody figured out what to do with this stuff," one man said.
Buchanan likes kudzu's unpredictability as an artistic medium. The strips she peels from a length of vine retain the vine's bends and twists so she may start out with one goal in mind and end up somewhere else.
"You never know how something is going to turn out," she said.
Celebration in Danbury
From time to time, Buchanan shows others how to play with kudzu, and she will be doing that Sunday as part of the "Christmas in Historic Danbury" celebration on Main Street in downtown Danbury.
Another thing she likes about working with kudzu is taking something that most people consider a scourge and turning it into something useful. Weaving baskets is by no means the only thing that kudzu is good for. It is chock full of vitamins A and C and other nutrients, and some people like to eat it. It can be served as a salad, cooked like collard greens or flash fried to make a sort of kudzu potato chip. In traditional Chinese medicine, kudzu is one of the 50 fundamental herbs, and studies have shown that it can relieve hangover symptoms.
Kudzu can remain flexible enough to weave for up to a month when the weather is cold, but it tends to dry out during the summer and become unworkable in just a few days. So she usually goes out and cuts kudzu as she needs it.
Other vines for contrast
Buchanan, 57, shares a house out in the Stokes County countryside with her husband, Scot, and assorted cats. She particularly enjoys weaving while sitting on the front steps. When it's too cold or rainy out to do that, she may sit on the living-room floor and work with the TV on. Sometimes, she uses grape and honeysuckle vines to weave in contrasting highlights.
The Buchanans both work in Winston-Salem. He works for Wachovia, and she works part-time at The Enrichment Center, which offers classes for adults with developmental disabilities. As a volunteer, she also does crafts with the residents of a Walnut Cove retirement center.
Mostly, she sells what she makes at the Dan River Art Market in Danbury. A larger basket might be $35. Something small might be $5.
Buchanan discovered kudzu weaving 14 years ago when she and her husband went to an arts weekend at a bed-and-breakfast in Chimney Rock and took a class taught by Nancy Basket, a South Carolina artist.
Kudzu weaving didn't take hold with her husband.
"He's a very linear guy," she said. "This drives him crazy because there is no rhyme or reason."
■ Kim Underwood can be reached at 727-7389 or at kunderwood@wsjournal.com.
If you go
"Christmas in Historic Danbury" on Sunday will include presentations by artists and writers as well as a visit from Santa and a holiday-tree lighting.
Pam Buchanan will demonstrate basket weaving. At 4 p.m., Peter Holland will perform A Christmas Carol Revisited. Art by Patti Hricinak Sheets will be on display in the Stokes County Arts Council's gallery. People can have their pictures made with Santa (Billy Joyce other days), decorate a gingerbread house and buy arts and crafts and food. At 6 p.m., Jane Priddy-Charleville, the mayor of Danbury, will light the tree.
The celebration is sponsored by the arts council, the Dan River Art Market, the Town of Danbury and Artist's Way Café. Festivities began at 2 p.m. in downtown Danbury. For more information, call the arts council at 336-593-8159.
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