After learning the basic twinning technique, I began  experimenting with the plants I found in my  immediate environment – blackberry vines,  willow, honeysuckle, and even poison oak. So soon after my partner Steve and I, his  elderly parents, and our teenage daughter  Katherine moved into the little town of  Dominical, we began building our home on a  lot bordering the Baru River.  

When we took breaks from sanding wood and  tiling floors, Steve went out to chase waves,  and I began my search for tropical plant parts  that I could manipulate into containers,  baskets, boxes, and lampshades (needed in  my ‘bare-bulbed’, half-finished house). After  experimental trial and error, I found the  perfect material in the discarded sheaths of  various palms – royal, lipstick, navidad, and  aracae. 

Since these palms weren’t introduced into  Costa Rica till the late 1800’s they were not  used by the indigenous people in their  basketry. These sheaths, shed by the palm,  are plentiful, renewable, beautiful, accessible  for gathering material.

Besides the fun of riding waves and weaving  baskets, we needed to get creative with a plan  for generating an income. Not retired and too  young for Social Security benefits, we fell into  a niche we were suited for – being hosts. The  apparent facts pointed the way: I knew how to  cook from scratch and improvise, having lived  a long way from a grocery store.

Dominical had no vegetarian restaurant options. We had a kitchen and a stove and  lots of space filled with a few tables and  chairs. We played music and wanted to attract  musicians to play with us. Also, since we had  no door, ‘Bienvenidos’ looked like our theme.  We called ourselves Jazzy’s RiverHouse,  named after our newborn granddaughter, a  place for music and home-cooked food. A  cultural center of sorts. So with the help of my  daughter, husband, and young friends, we  cooked and presented a 5-course meal every  Wednesday night serving up to 45 people  until I announced the ‘Last Supper’ 8 years  later. 

So Jazzy’s RiverHouse continues to be a  cultural center – an ample space for palm part  weaving classes, musical collaborations, and  piano lessons.  

If learning to make a container or art object  out of this plentiful material called a ‘palm  sheath’ interests you, contact me to set up a  time and date. Since hands-on work is unique  to the human-animal, a craft that employs our  hands may be essential to our mental health.  I love it, and you may want it, too!