Pegg Mathewson
Traditional Basketry Materials
Gathering and Preparation with an Emphasis on the Western United States
Sometimes you can find “road kill” bark slabs that have been run over by logging trucks so many times that they have separated out into perfect fluffy shreds.
There is an old saying among native California basketmakers that goes: “When you start your basket, you’re halfway done.”
Anyone who has ever sat down to begin a basket knows there is a lot of preparation that goes on before that first twist or fold. Bark is peeled and stripped fine, shoots are split and thinned, roots are roasted and scraped, all in preparation for their use in weaving. At the very least, you have to go outside with your clippers.
Native peoples in North America used, and still use, basketry in a variety of ways. In the past, families had to rely on the strength and flexibility of their baskets for many subsistence needs such as carrying, gathering seeds, roasting, winnowing and boiling. As a result, they learned to understand the plants and how to prepare them to be long, flexible and durable when formed into a basket and dried.
Of course, today we do not rely on baskets as we once did, but many people wish to make a basket for the sheer enjoyment of forming a vessel from nature’s greenery, or for less exacting purposes such as storing onions or for taking to the market. Perhaps you are out on a wilderness trip and you need to carry a load more efficiently. If so, a basket can help.
This chapter is an introduction to some of the many types of plant parts used in traditional basketry and ways in which native peoples have prepared them for use. I will not be discussing basketry techniques here, but I will mention the basics: twining, plaiting, wicker and coiling, and where a plant part particularly lends itself to that use. Some plants work well for basketmaking, others need special treatment and still others might as well be egg shells or iron bars for all the good they would be.
Since I have worked mostly in the western United States, I will focus on the plants in that area. The techniques described may be applied to similar plant parts anywhere you live, and a wide variety of city and ornamental plants work as well. If you’re not sure, try it out and see if the plant is suitable for what you want to do with it. Be creative!
Shoots
Many plants, especially trees and woody shrubs, send out long, narrow, flexible shoots. These are called adventitious shoots or wythes. These may be used whole, or split into thin splints or skeins for finer and lighter baskets. Whole-shoot basketry is one of the simplest and best ways to start weaving if you are a beginner because there is little or no preparation (see chapter by Tamara Wilder and Steven Edholm on whole-shoot baskets). For the best shoots, prune the plant severely the previous winter to promote fast-growing, straight shoots for the following year. Many traditional groups burned their basketry plants regularly to promote new growth.
Try the shoots of the following plants: willow (Salix sp.), dogwood (Cornus sp.), hazel (Corylus sp.), sumac (Rhus sp.) except poison oak or ivy, redbud (Cercis sp.), maple (Acer sp.) as well as fruit tree suckers and fir (Pseudotsuga sp.), cedar (Thuja sp.), pine (Pinus sp.) and other conifers.
For whole-shoot twining and wicker basketry, use one year’s growth harvested in the winter; that is, anytime between the dropping of the leaves and the appearance of new buds in the spring. Winter-picked shoots will have the bark adhering tightly to the wood. For white shoots, pick the shoots just after the first buds appear in spring, and the sap starts running. For smaller sticks, slip the bark off with your fingers by peeling it down about an inch, rolling the peels tightly around the stick, pinching this roll tightly between your thumb and forefinger, clamping the protruding peeled end in your back teeth and then pulling the roll down to the tip of the stick. This is a Yurok/Karok/Hupa method.
In the spring the bark slips right off. Some people use a strawberry top picker for smaller sticks or a split stick pounded into the ground. You may also buy or make a metal “willow break” for peeling large sticks.
For finer baskets and for coiling, you need a very thin weaver. Split the peeled sticks down into splints or skeins. To split a stick in half, start the cut with a knife and then set the knife aside. Gently pull each half simultaneously apart applying equal pressure on both sides. It helps to place your pinky fingers on the whole shoot down below the split for support as you go. Once you get good at that, try holding one half in your mouth and the other in one hand. Support and control the split with your other hand, pinching firmly where the wood is splitting, sliding down as you go. In both of these methods you need to watch out for one side getting larger than the other. If this starts to happen, pull more on the largest side to return the split to the center. This seems to be contradictory but it works.
The Paiute of the Great Basin and others in California split willows down into three splints at once, holding one in the mouth and one in either hand. In Europe, a wooden cleave helps split the weavers into three or four strips.
Now each part needs to be split again, flat-wise, to make it more flexible. This second split is done in exactly the same way and cleans out the pithy center of the shoot, leaving a thin ribbon of sapwood. You can do this in winter to keep the bark on your splints for color, or you can peel the sticks for white splints.
For very fine coiled basketry the splints may be split many times and need to be evened out in width and thickness. To do this, fold the splint over your thumb and pull it down the entire length to feel for any lumps or thin spots. Trim the lumps with your knife. If the splitting is done correctly, very little knife work is necessary.
To size for width, trim the edges with a knife. Many people size weavers today by running them through holes punched in the top of a tin can. The metal shears off tiny shavings of wood from the edges. You can tell the skill of a weaver by the garbage they leave behind; the best leave only long, even curls or centers and no tiny shavings.
Now you are ready to weave with your shoots. Most people store the splints in rolls with the splint side facing outward. These are wrapped around with bits of rag, strung together and hung up in a dry place to dry completely. Traditional weavers age their materials for at least a year before use to allow them to shrink completely. We once tried an experiment in which rolls were weighed every week until they stopped losing water weight. It took over six months. Materials must be soaked again before weaving, but if they are correctly seasoned they never loosen up when woven into the basket.
Roots
Roots provide some of the best material for basketry, but they tend to be overlooked by beginners because it seems like so much work to get them out of the ground. Don’t be discouraged. Just don’t bother digging in rocky or clay soils or in the dry time of the year. You usually don’t even need to dig straight down anywhere if you look for the best places.
Look for roots growing along the sides of creeks, especially after the water has subsided from a heavy rainstorm. You can usually wade along and gather up the roots that have washed out of the bank. This is good for willow, cottonwood, alder and other river roots. Many plants, especially conifers such as cedar, like to grow in the looser soil and punky wood associated with stumps and fallen logs. These are called nurse logs in the Northwest, and are often full of long roots running along their length. You need only pull them apart and take what you want. All root gathering requires that you replace the soil and cover any roots you may have left. Don’t leave a strip mine behind you, please!