Helen Springer is one of Michigan’s premier basketmakers, having taught and sold her fiber art baskets, including original patterns, for over 40 years. She is a Detroit native who majored in mathematics with a minor in chemistry at the University of Detroit.  But she was the math major who loved art!  Upon graduation, Springer ended up teaching Calculus at Mercy High School, her alma mater.   This sparked a love of teaching that inspires Springer to this day. 

Springer insists that math and art overlap in the unique medium of basketweaving, where the shape of her baskets often mimic parabolas, and she frequently used simpler math concepts to get secondary patterns to emerge in the texture of the surface her work. 

She took her first basket class from Michigan basketmaker pioneer, Grace Kabel, in 1974 and fell in love with the art form.  In 1976 when “Art Train” came to her town, Springer decided to try her hand at selling her work and had enough sales to inspire her to keep going.  At first her baskets were extremely traditional and all the same dark brown color.  In the 80s she convinced her husband to take up wood turning, and so began her lathe basket period. 

For the next 30 years, her husband Jim has joined her in creating breathtaking contemporary baskets with a variety of wooden rims, lids and bases in exotic woods.  She has traveled to England to take willow classes, and even tried her hand at splitting oak and ash.  She says her best work is still ahead, constantly seeking to push the boundaries of the medium, fondly interspersed this with weaving traditional Easter baskets for her growing family of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

“There are two basketmakers in me; one traditional and one contemporary.  As soon as I begin work on any basket the next one is on the horizon.  There is no end to it and I love them all.”