Photography by Sage Sweetwater

It's a colorful world when a lesbian author can bring together religion and the wild. The simplicity of making an offering to a religious community through the hand-crafted art by the elderly mother of Sage Sweetwater.

The basket you see in this photo was made by my elderly mother. This basket was so popular, Sage Sweetwater Firebrand Lesbian Novelist writes about it in her Lesbian Western Novel From the Convent to the Rawhide: The Saga of Sadie Cade and Vi Montana, adapted to screen to be a motion picture currently in development with Triboro Pictures. 

Explaining to her dear fans what the purpose of the basket is in the Mormon Community, and just as Sage's mother explained the function of the basket to her, the excerpt here is from page 62 of the novel. It explains through the character of Mercedes Cade at the Pish Convent who is taking Sister Pish on a picnic, what Sage Sweetwater's mother makes the baskets for.

"Being keenly aware of her creativity, it is here that God's little green acres show her how to make a picnic basket out of a small box by weaving some colorful paper twist from the hobby store, the many slumbering talents that are waiting within her to be unleashed. No television and no telephones free up just so much time, absolutely necessary to find one's set-point.

As she braids the handle with the paper twist, it must be said that at the same time, she is braiding memories. You will be surprised at how much warmth the basket will return in the future. To the person looking to deepen a friendship, they might just as well be on the lookout for a similiar ripple effect of kindness that can spread, (like the curry and tuna mixture) beyond the original intention.

One of the best ways to deepen a friendship is to eat together. Many important details happened when Jesus and his friends sat down at the table. There is something sacred in breaking bread with a friend.

Gluing the braided handle onto the basket bonded the Big S and the little s; the ages of the women are not important.  This is a heartfelt picnic, so there better well be a fancy bow for celebration. Mercedes loops a wide strip of paper twist, fashioning a nice bow. The Mormon women make a lot of these two-color-checkerboard baskets. They fill the baskets with foodstuffs and give them to the new ones who arrive in their community.  All of this comes from having an educated heart."

Sage Sweetwater's mother also made baskets for Sage's wolf clients to receive their wolf cub in when they arrived at Sage Sweetwater's Howling Ridge Wolf Camp to take ownership of their new wolf cub. It all comes from having an educated heart.

Sage Sweetwater is a faithful practitioner of the Wiccan faith.

Copyright 2.26.2010 Ms. Sage Sweetwater, firebrand lesbian novelist