Elizabeth Runyon Turned Appalachian Baskets Into Sculpture – and Into a Venice Biennial

Elizabeth Runyon is a sculptural basket maker in Paris, Kentucky, who weaves large contemporary sculptures from reed. She learned basketry in monthly classes about 30 years ago and turned to sculptural work around 2012, building on the tradition of Appalachian ribbed baskets. Her pieces – an alligator, leaping fish, a Seven Deadly Sins series – have been shown in the US, South Korea, China and Italy, and two were selected for the 2026 Homo Faber Biennial in Venice.

Elizabeth Runyon weaves with reed, also called rattan, colored with commercial dyes or bought already dyed. She works from a basic sketch but can “see” a piece in three dimensions before she starts. Many pieces begin with ribs, like an Appalachian ribbed basket; she adds and subtracts ribs to get “the dramatic sensuous shapes” she’s aiming for. A large piece takes more than a month, not counting the time she spends imagining it.

Elizabeth Runyon takes custom orders, and says she has always learned from the people requesting the work. Requests come through her website, and timing depends on size. For one commission – a bird-nest piece under two feet – she visited the client’s home, measured, made two variations, and hung the chosen one herself; it took about six weeks. She sells within the US and hasn’t worked with an interior designer yet, but would welcome a project.

Elizabeth Runyon finds buyers through juried exhibitions and galleries, not advertising or social media. She has sold around 35 sculptural pieces, for up to $2,100, with $0 spent on promotion and fewer than 150 Instagram followers. A solo show at Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati sold four pieces, and several pieces from a 2017 exhibit at the Weston Gallery went to a prominent actor in California – where most of her buyers live.

Elizabeth learned to make baskets in monthly classes in southwestern Ohio, where she was living around 30 years ago. From the very beginning she was drawn to reed. “I like its versatility, its flexibility and the way it can be dyed to create any other color.” She had always been a “crafty” person, like other members of her family.

For many years she made what would be considered “normal” – useful baskets, many of them given as gifts. She still sells some of these locally. The tradition of Appalachian ribbed baskets interested her most, and it still inspires her work.

Around 2012, she was able to leave daily paid work behind. That gave her time to develop her own voice as a basketmaker: she began creating large sculptural pieces and looking for places to exhibit them.

Elizabeth works with all sizes of reed, a natural fiber grown and processed in Asia, which she orders from suppliers in the US. She has worked with white oak, the traditional Appalachian basketry material, and loves it – but she has no supply to access, and the work is so labor intensive that selling pieces made from it wouldn’t be realistic. She uses commercial dyes or buys reed already dyed.

“I work from a basic sketch but I’m actually able to ‘see’ the piece in three dimensions before I start,” she says. Many pieces start with ribs, like an Appalachian ribbed basket, but she adds in and subtracts out ribs to reach the shapes she wants. Her large pieces take more than a month to make – not counting the time she spends imagining a piece and working out issues in her mind. “I like this preparatory period a lot.”

She has a studio in her home, but she often weaves in her kitchen. “I like the way light falls into this room and the smells of meals past is comforting.” When something isn’t working, she has a phrase for it: “Some days you weave, some days you unweave.”

Many of her pieces are inspired by animals – “I also love dinosaurs.” Slither is “just a whimsical look at an alligator.” Out of School is one of several interpretations of fish she has worked on over the years, the fish suggested as leaping out of the water. Greed belongs to a Seven Deadly Sins series, and she wanted it to feel ominous. A Delicate Balance is a commentary on climate change: what happens in one part of the world affects the rest of it. And Self Contained has no opening at all. “Is it a basket if it can’t hold anything? Is it a basket if it isn’t useful at all?”

Representative pieces of Elizabeth’s work, from a five-foot alligator to a three-legged piece meant to suggest “an off balance, offbeat kind of ‘oompah pah.’” Photos: Jeff Sabo, Zeke Runyon, Mary Rezny.

Most of Elizabeth’s buyers are interested in contemporary art; they aren’t basket collectors as such. Most of them live in California. “It just hit me as kind of odd that the very first piece I sold, featured in a Fantastic Fiber international exhibit held in western Kentucky, was sold to someone visiting the area from California.” Several pieces from her Weston Gallery exhibit in Cincinnati were bought by a prominent actor who lives in California. “I was thrilled.”

Large hanging abstract pieces are the most popular. When she started, she pictured pieces four or five feet long, hanging from the ceiling and lit from inside. “I love the way a hanging lit piece casts shadows on a wall.” Gallery lighting is too specific for that, so the lit pieces go to individuals for their homes. She also makes lamp shades for table and floor lamps. “These are always a top seller so I don’t know why I don’t make more of them.”

Early on, most pieces sold for $250–300; now she lists them around $500–700, and the highest price she has received is $2,100. Sometimes she gives a piece away – even to a worker who came to her home, admired a piece and expressed an interest in it. “This is not the usual art collector and I’m happy to encourage an appreciation for art. I would rather the pieces be enjoyed than make money.”

Elizabeth’s buyers came through juried exhibitions from the start. Shipping large pieces – let alone crating them – is expensive, and costs have risen even more lately. So from around 2012 to 2019, while she was living in Ohio, she mostly entered juried competitions within a four-hour drive of home: several Cincinnati venues, the Ohio Craft Museum in Columbus, the Sculpture Center in Cleveland and the Zanesville Art Museum.

Juried exhibitions and galleries have brought in most of her sales. Elizabeth submitted work for a solo exhibit at Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, a space created and run by artists that tends to specialize in contemporary art. At the time it looked at more than 90 solo proposals a year and picked around seven. Her proposal was accepted, and four pieces from the show sold. “I see it as a space that collectors frequent.”

The shows led to awards and invitations. Dancing on Three Legs received the Louetta Heindl Kambic Award for outstanding weaving at FiberArt International 2022 in Pittsburgh, and Vice Versa won the 3D art category and Best in Show at the 2019 Hopewell Creative Harvest in Paris, Kentucky. Her work has gone to the Korea Fiber Art Biennial in Suwon, the From Lausanne to Beijing International Fiber Art Biennial and an exhibition in Castel di Sangro, Italy.

Closer to home, the art guild gallery in her town carries her work. A larger piece hangs in the window – and one sold that way – but mostly she makes smaller objects there at a lower price point, for people looking for a nice gift.

She treats each step as worth marking. “Because negative thoughts can often be more intrusive it is important to celebrate any positive aspects, to embrace achievements. Invited to exhibit internationally? Celebrate!”

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Elizabeth has never done target marketing for her art. On Instagram she has fewer than 150 followers, and the most views a post has ever had is 220. She keeps a website for inquiries, but she doesn’t remember a single sale coming through it. “Of course, my web site is woefully outdated and I really need to give it some attention.”

Her early vision of large lit pieces didn’t work in galleries either: the lighting there is too specific for it to be seen. And shipping keeps limiting where large work can go.

Asked whether she ever doubted the sculptural direction, she says not really. “I make things because I want to make things. If someone else sees it and likes it or wants to take it home, all the better. If not, I’m going to make it anyway because I’m compelled to make it.” The frustrating part, she says, is ignoring all the other things she should be doing, like laundry, just to focus on making something.

In 2017, Elizabeth was invited to take part in “Unfunction,” a contemporary art exhibit at the Weston Gallery in the Aronoff Center in Cincinnati, curated by an independent curator. The other exhibitors were art professors. “I was enormously thrilled because I simply have a bachelor’s degree in music.”

“When I was first approached to participate in a contemporary art exhibit with other artists in a major gallery, I realized maybe what I have to say resonates beyond my studio.”

Elizabeth was recently included in the Homo Faber Guide, a listing of artisans from all over the world, and two of her pieces – Fragments of My Former Life and Upward Trajectory – were selected for the Homo Faber Biennial in Venice in September 2026.

In October 2025 she was invited to teach at Arrowmont, an arts and crafts school in Tennessee. She doesn’t often teach, “but this week of teaching reminded me yet again that the teacher always learns as much as the students!!” She served a three-year term on the board of the National Basketry Organization. Now she is working on pieces in black reed and pieces built over wire – after an NBO class on weaving with metal, she realized some of her large pieces could benefit from structural bases like this.

Her advice is four words long: “Enjoy what you make.”

Radical reed: sculptural baskets beyond the ordinary. “I use traditional techniques to create contemporary sculptural baskets.”

Who: Elizabeth Runyon
What: Contemporary sculptural baskets woven from reed
Where: Paris, Kentucky, USA
Started: 1990s (sculptural work since around 2012)
Audience: Fewer than 150 Instagram followers
Customers: Around 35 sculptural pieces sold; under 10 sales a year
Price range: Around $500–700 now; highest sale $2,100
Custom orders: Yes
Ships: Within the US
Works with designers: Not yet, but open to it
Promotion budget: $0
Income: Not yet main income
Status: Steady
Channels: Offline & word of mouth (juried exhibitions, galleries), own website