Pacific Northwest Basketry
Tlingit "rattle top" basket with whale motif; circa 1900
The Tlingit are famous for their fine, colorful, closed twined basketry of spruce root and bear grass (natural and dyed). Often times, small stones were placed in the knob of the lid and would rattle... hence the term "rattle top" is used to describe such as basket.
Most of the Northwest twined basktry is very fragile, and easily is damaged. Matt Wood's AIAA, Inc. specializes in the restoration of Tlingit basketry.
The Tlingit of southeast Alaska have produced some of the finest examples of two-strand twining; their spruce root baskets exhibit bold geometric designs in warm hues of red, orange, yellow, and brown. In spring and fall, women collected the young roots of the Sitka Spruce, a tradition shared by both men and women today. The bark is peeled from the roots, which are left to cure over the summer. Then they are split and ready for weaving. The baskets are decorated in false embroidery, in which bleached, and often dyed grass is wrapped around the weft; the pattern is visible only on the outside of the basket. Natural dyes were obtained from local materials such as huckleberry, sulphuric mud, moss, hemlock bark, and alder bark steeped in urine. Commercial aniline dyes were popular as early as 1890, marking the beginning of the tourist trade era.
Utilitarian baskets were used to collect berries, roots, and shellfish for storage and for food preparation and serving. The flat-bottomed cylindrical berry basket is an older form. Large berry, or carrying baskets were worn on the back, and the smaller berry picking baskets emptied into them. Spruce root baskets are flexible and non-rigid; large berry baskets were often stored folded flat. Other forms include open-work strainers, plaques, cups, bowls, and rattle-top round boxes in which pebbles or lead shot were placed inside the lid. As the demand for made-for-sale baskets increased, Tlingit wove new forms, such as trays, teacups, and covered glass bottles.
Abstract designs often depict patterns observed in nature, such as the butterfly wing, whale’s teeth, path of the woodworm, tail of the raven, fern frond, and flying goose pattern. Realistic designs often portray animals. Other motifs represent aspects of Tlingit culture, such as tattoos and labrets, as well as patterns adopted from Euroamerican items, like Hudson Bay blankets and the Christian cross.
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The Makah and Nootka were among the most prolific weavers of basketry made for sale after 1910 and still weave today. Their baskets are observed to have cedar bark warp and bear grass weft (both natural and dyed). The baskets are usually lidded and depict fish, canoes, birds and mythic figures. The strong colors often fade with age, but usually the interior retainis the original colors, as it does not see daylight. |
Fine Makah lidded basket, Neah Bay, Washington, circa 1910
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Salish basketry - To be Updated Soon!