Sally Prangley

"For me, creating baskets with wire is like drawing elegant three-dimensional shapes in the air."

Artist Sally Prangley is fascinated with the properties of wire. Whether thick as rope or fine as hair, wire evolves from a wound-up coil to whatever shape Prangley has in mind—with some help from her fingers and favorite pliers! Every basket she creates has a title that reflects the idea that inspired her. Emotions, experiences from travel around the world, and puns are some of her most common inspirations.

Sally Prangley blends traditional basketry and wirework techniques to create her unusual and elegant wire baskets. All work is done by hand, freeform, using only wire and paper. Baskets are created one at a time and begin with a rough sketch. Her favorite wires are stainless steel, annealed steel, bronze, and copper.

Prangley learned traditional basketry years ago, believing that someday she would create baskets using alternative materials. While taking a workshop on wire, the light bulb lit up inside her head to use wire for baskets. Sally has drawn, painted, and created mixed-media art all her life and is largely self-taught. She minored in art history at Northwestern University and received her MBA in marketing from the George Washington University.