Sweetgrass fanner basket.
|
Title |
Sweetgrass fanner basket. |
|
Description |
This (11 inches wide x 3 inches tall) coiled "sweetgrass" and palm "fanner" basket may have been made in Mali, West Africa. Fanner baskets were used for winnowing, the process of tossing hulls into the air to separate the chaff from the rice. The coiled basket is made by bundling dried sweetgrass, coiling it into spirals, and sewing the coils with thin strands of other fiber to make flat, fanner baskets or containers for storage. The coiled sweetgrass basket is the oldest, living, handmade, African art form in America. This historically significant art was brought to America by enslaved Africans from the Windward and Rice Coasts of West Africa in the 17th century. These slaves were particularly sought after in the Atlantic slave trade to the coastal area of the Carolinas because of their knowledge and experience in the cultivation and harvest of rice. In order to separate the rice grain from the husks, women would pound the rice gently with a mortar and pestle to loosen the husks. Then it would be transferred to a flat sweetgrass basket (a fanner basket), where it was shaken and tossed upward in a process called winnowing to allow the husks to fly away in the wind. The coiled basket is made by bundling dried sweetgrass, coiling it into spirals, and sewing the coils with thin strands of saw palmetto leaves to make a flat, fanner basket or a tall container for storage. Sweetgrass is a fine bladed, sweet vanilla fragranced perennial grass that grows behind coastal sand dunes in moist soils. Because the grasses used in these baskets are from the swamps and marsh areas, water will not hurt them. They can be washed in soapy water, rinsed thoroughly in cold water & then be air dried. The art of sweetgrass basket making has been passed on from generation to generation, is usually learned from childhood, and requires a great deal of patience and creativity. In Africa coiled or woven baskets continue to be used to process grain and to cover bowls of food. Donated by Alice Pfeffer. |
|
Subject |
Sweetgrass baskets--Specimens.; Baskets--Mali--Specimens.; Art--Africa, West--Specimens. |
|
Date |
[between 19--? and 2012] |
|
Rights |
Giertz Education Center @ the Krannert Art Museum |
you wish to report:
...
Replicas and Objects of the Giertz Education Center, Krannert Art Museum
