Basket Materials
We hand-process and braid all of our sweetgrass braids.
We split, size, and scrape the rough brown ash wood splints in our basket-making construction.
Brown Ash Woodsplints and Maine Sweetgrass
We use the highest quality materials in our basket construction
Brown (black) Ash tree wood splints are harvested from Maine. The trees are cut, pounded with the back of an axe until the rough strips of wood are peeled off and ready for finer processing and splitting. After acquiring the rough coils of ash wood splints, we begin a further and labor-intensive processing for the final construction of the basket.
Brown Ash Trees
Traditional baskets are made from wood splints of the Brown Ash (Fraxinus nigra) tree.
Rough Wood Splints
Rough wood splints have been split – ready to be scraped on the rough outer side with a knife for smoothness of weaving.
Weaving Wood Splints
Foundational smooth splints are the standards that provide support for the basket.
Fresh Sweetgrass
Hierochloe odorata (also known as holy grass, vanilla grass, buffalo grass, Seneca grass). Harvested in summer from Maine coastal marshes, it is dried in bunches until used for braid.
Dried Sweetgrass & Braided Grass
We hand-braid all our sweetgrass. Both unbraided strands, as well as braided strands are used to enhance basket design.
Sweetgrass Braider Platform
Using a braider makes the sweetgrass coils so much easier to braid! It saves time and effort.
Coiled & Braided Sweetgrass
The braided stranded are wrapped as coils while they are still damp. Braiding is an art learned through hours of practice.
Tools of the Trade: Guages, knives, blocks
Most of the tools we use have been passed down in my basket making family for generations. These are a must-have for weavers!
Blocks passed down in my family
After insertion into the foundation, blocks are used to mold and shape each basket, or some are free-form without using a block.
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