Mat: rivercane, wall

Mat: rivercane, wall

Basket making

Basketwork

Cherokee baskets

Handicraft

The rivercane wall mat was made by Rowena Bradley, who was born in the Swimmer Branch Community of the Qualla Indian Boundary, near Cherokee, North Carolina. Butternut was used to achieve the brown color; bloodroot produced the orange. The weave pattern is known as Coffin (or Casket) because of its rectangular shape. The "coffins" run diagonally across the face of the mat. Rowena Bradley is the daughter of Henry and Nancy George Bradley, also an accomplished basket maker. Basketmaking was a family tradition; her father gathered rivercane and dug roots for dye materials. Rowena learned to weave baskets as a child by watching her mother. Later, her mother taught her the complex double weave technique. While the date of this particular wall mat is not known, Rowena Bradley made baskets from 1920 to 1980.

Bradley, Rowena, 1922-2003

Artifact Collection

Hunter Library Digital Collections, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC 28723

1920/1980

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

jpg;

crafts (art genres)

StillImage

15294

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/15294

2009-06-29

All rights reserved. For permissions and use, contact Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual, Inc., Cherokee, NC 28719;

Qualla Boundary

Appalachian Region, Southern

14 x 13.5(dimension)

Craft Revival