:: The Art Museum : the baskets ::

If you know me, baskets are my weakness.

I have brought baskets from everywhere I’ve been, I think. Different sizes, different shapes. You never know when you are going to need one!  Right?

While at the Museum I was attracted to the baskets too, and just seeing the different colors, designs and sizes… oh my!  They are so beautifully made… I think I’d like to learn to weave baskets some day soon.

On our tour we learned that baskets from the Western part of Oregon are made out of twined grasses.

Handled gathering basket from 1900 from Cowlitz.  Made out of cedar wood and beargrass with natural dyes. 

Lidded pouch from Chehalis, from 1910.  Made out of cedar root, beargrass and leather and cotton lining. 

That the baskets from Tillamook area are similar to those from Chehalis and are finely woven and have geometric forms.

That the baskets from the Western side of Oregon and very different from those from Eastern Oregon.

We also learned that the baskets from the Plateau, the Eastern side of Oregon, are mostly made out cedar root and are not twined but coiled.

And that they were mostly made for gathering berries.

These are gift baskets.

Gift Baskets from 1900-1920 from the Pomo Tribe. Made out of willow, sedge root, bulrush root, quail feathers and clam shell beads.

Beautiful, beautiful all of them.  I wonder if the Museum wouldn’t mind if I display them here at my house some day… wouldn’t that be nice?

About these ads