Wright's Indian Art > Baskets

Basketry, like pottery, is one of man's oldest crafts. Fragments of baskets and basket impressions on prehistoric pots, from Mesopotamia to China to the Americas, testify to the pervasiveness of the use of baskets in daily life. From winnowing seeds to storage to ceremonial uses, baskets were a staple necessity all over the world for thousands of years.

Here in the Southwest, two basket-making techniques were traditional: plaiting and coiling. The Pueblo tribes commonly used plaiting for their utility baskets. "Wicker" as in the willow basket plaques of the Hopi, is a variation of plaiting, in which round elements are used, one set completely covered by the other.

Coiling involves a fixed element wrapped with a flexible element. The coils are attached to one another by the stitches of the flexible elements. Different tribes use different arrangements of rigid elements, but coiled basketry is used by the Apache, Papago (now To'hono O'odham) Pima, and Hopi.

It is much easier to store food in plastic containers, today, so baskets have moved from commonplace necessities to art objects. The relatively high price of most baskets reflects the laborious, painful, year(s)-long process involved in gathering the materials, preparing them, and weaving the piece.

Baskets are fragile and you are not going to spend your days making new ones, so here are some tips for their care: Keep them clean - a hairdryer is a good way to dust them. Keep them away from airborne grease and dirt, such as found in kitchens. Keep them away from direct sunlight. Keep them away from excessive dryness or humidity.

Baskets combine high technical skill and esthetic pleasure. As collecting interest grows, the demand encourages the development of more basket-makers, thus helping to preserve this ancient but arduous art.

Navajo

Varied Tribes

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