Basket: honeysuckle, storage

Basket: honeysuckle, storage

Basket making

Cherokee baskets

Handicraft

This undated basket was made by Cherokee basket weaver Lucy George. The basket is honeysuckle woven over white oak splints. The basket shape begins with a round base and was woven upward and outward. Traditionally, storage baskets were made to store domestic goods, from dry foodstuffs to clothing. The natural aeration of the weave allows the stored goods to remain dry. The honeysuckle was dyed with walnut to produce the brown color, with bloodroot to make orange, and with yellowroot to make the light yellow. All three plants, used by Cherokee basket weavers to make dye, are native to the region. Lucy Nola George (1897-1978) was raised in the Birdtown community on the Qualla Boundary. In a departure from traditional Cherokee ways of learning, Lucy George did not learn basket making from mother. In the 1930s, as a grown woman, she learned the craft from Julia Taylor. She developed her own methods, weaving baskets from honeysuckle. She also taught others and demonstrated her craft.

George, Lucy Nola, 1897-1978

Artifact Collection

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

unknown

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

jpg

crafts (art genres)

StillImage

16065

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/16065

2009-05-15

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

Qualla Boundary

Appalachian Region, Southern

6.5" x 10" x 10"(dimension)

Craft Revival