1. Cherokee Basketry
T
he twentieth century brought a time of transition for the Cherokee tradition of basket weaving. Baskets made
of natural materials, long produced to serve numerous domestic functions, were being replaced by cheaper,
mass produced, synthetic containers. Meanwhile, throughout the southeast, land development reduced the
habitats of native flora necessary for basket construction.As demand and natural resources began to drop off, so did
the desire to learn with increasingly fewer Cherokee youth learning the technique.“By mid-twentieth century, the skill
necessary for weaving in this traditional technique had nearly been lost.”*
The arts-and-crafts movement of the first half of the twentieth century rekindled the country’s interest in the
tradition, and some great efforts were made to reintroduce it to the education of young Cherokees.Among one of
the most notable advocates of traditional basket weaving was a Native American named Lottie Stamper. In the 1940s,
Stamper traveled throughout the southeast teaching the nearly lost art of basketry in Native American public schools.
Though the tradition survived, contemporary Cherokee baskets are now typically produced to serve as decorative
pieces rather than functional ones. The Bradley’s of the Eastern Band of Cherokee were one family whose remarkable
basketry spanned the tradition’s transition from function to form.
—Tim Bookout, Georgia Museum of Art Archival Collection
Rowena Bradley was born in 1922 in the Swimmer Branch
community on land belonging to the Eastern Band of Chero-
kee. She was the youngest of eight children and became one of
a third generation of accomplished basket weavers following in
the tradition of her mother Nancy Bradley and her grandmother
Mary Dobson. Rowena made her first basket at age six. Like
most Cherokee families, the women in the Bradley’s family wove
the baskets, while the men gathered and provided the necessary
organic materials native to the area. Though Bradley was known
to weave established patterns such as, Chief’s Daughter, Flowing
Water, and Noon Day Sun, she also weaved her own creative
designs. Once enough baskets were completed, the women of
Bradley’s family would take them some distance to sell at market.
Bradley recalls,“I can remember mother weaving her baskets
and when she had finished, she would tie them up in an old sheet
and throw them across her shoulder and take them to Cherokee
to trade for groceries.”* Bradley’s baskets have been featured
in prominent exhibitions and the permanent collections of the
North Carolina Arts Council, and the US Department of Interi-
or’s Indian Arts and Crafts Board.
*http://www.wcu.edu/library/DigitalCollections/CherokeeTraditions/Peo

2. Verbal Description
Untitled Utility Basket.
Cherokee, northeast Georgia, United States, 1974
Rowena Bradley
River cane, Bloodroot, Butternut root
T
he basket we are going to learn about today is by an artist
named Rowena Bradley. Rowena was a Native American
from the Eastern Band of the Cherokee nation in north-
eastern Georgia, only a few-hours drive northeast from where
we are today. Bradley made this basket in 1974. It is on view in
the Decorative Arts Gallery on the second floor of the Georgia
Museum of Art, along with other pieces illustrating the life of
17th- to 18th-century Americans. Other pieces include furni-
ture, ceramics, quilts, and baskets made by other cultures from
the area.
Bradley used river cane to double-weave the basket, and
butternut root and bloodroot organic dyes to color the river cane. The
basket is about the size of a large purse or toaster-oven. The basket is offi-
cially untitled, but the artist described it as a utility basket because it was probably
intended to hold any miscellaneous objects that would fit. It has a square bottom that re-
laxes into a round top with no lid or handles. The sides of the basket are nearly as tall as the basket is wide, making it
quite deep, nearly a cube. There are large crisscross patterns of three different colors—black, red, and yellow—running
diagonally from top to bottom. Black bands of river cane, about as thick as someone’s wrist, begin at twelve, three,
six and nine o’clock points along the rim of the top and slant down the sides to the bottom at a three o’clock angle.A
smaller red band, about two fingers thick, is layered on top of the dark band, and both are crosshatched with the light-
est yellow color of river cane. The pattern itself is called Flowing Water and resembles the weave of a basket.
The double-weave technique is significant due to its difficulty. It involves weaving one basket inside of another.
Bradley confirmed that at the time she was learning the double weave method, there were only two other people she
knew who could weave using this method. Her mother was one of them.Also significant are the materials used. They
are all organic materials found and collected locally.As its name indicates, river cane is found near and around fresh,
inland bodies of water, and the bloodroot and butternut root are harvested from forested areas. The river cane strips
are made thin and lightweight with a slick, glossy finish that causes the basket to squeak. The vegetable dyes are warm
and soft, and help to give the basket an earthy smell. These materials have been used in the same manner for centuries.
Finally, as is traditional in Cherokee basket design, there are no handles because the Cherokee usually carried baskets
on their heads.
Guidelines for verbal description:
http://www.artbeyondsight.org/handbook/acs-guidelines.shtml
Samples of verbal description:
http://www.artbeyondsight.org/mei/verbal-description-training/samples-of-verbal-description/

3. Single-Weave Square Basket and Rectangular Basket
Single weave means one up/over and one down/under.
Studio Activity
The student will:
Materials
Alternative basketry material, plastic packing
strips—even better!
Do a square or a rectangular base with single-weave and use a raffia string to tie all-around to secure the base.
Activities
one small basket. Some prefabrication may be neces-
sary depending on the age group
a simple weave technique
Ice Breakers
Pass around examples of Cherokee baskets fully and/
or partially finished for students to examine.

4. Then fold up all the four sides to stand the straps. Then use separate long straps and
weave all around in a square or rectangle following the base. Use the raffia string to
secure the horizontal first two straps, after which the walls will take shape.
Put the number of horizontal rows to the height you want.
End the edge or the last row by folding down the alternate
straps straight down covering the plastic strap. Use a small
pair of pliers to fold if the straps are hard.
Cut and tuck in so that the end of the strap is tucked into
a weave and it does not show.Another strap is needed to
fold in the alternate straps of the last row and to go over
the double weave, thereby making the last row firmer.
Put a long strong strap for the handle; go through the two
central lines and up to the top, twice or three times.
These are very strong baskets.You can vary the size by the
number of straps you use.You can make square or rectangu-
lar ones.

5. Double-Weave Square Basket
Double weave means two up/over and two down/under and it is prettier than the single weave as it has a zigzag pat-
tern. This is slightly complicated so I will describe in detail. Please refer to diagrams.
To start, take two of the same color and cross them with another two of the same
color as in thisdiagram.
Then on the second round of four colorless strips you need to put a single weave
where indicated by a“dot”.
The third round of four strips continues with double weave.
The fourth round has to have a“dot” again: instead of just going
over 2 under 2, you put the strip over 1 under 1 just once at the
centerline.

6. The fifth round has no“dot”; you simply weave the strip over 2 under 2. Remember to end at single weave, i.e. at even
numbers of strips.
If you follow this design, i.e. a dark crossroad and
then white strips after that you will get a design
like this image.
From this diagram you can see that you will have to insert
a single weave“x” at every second round only. It is the same
as the“dot” in the diagram before this one. Notice the posi-
tion of the single weave“x”; it changes always from right to
left of the centerline. Note that the dark stripes are placed
horizontally and the white strips are placed vertically. It
looks very pretty at the base but the sides will be of one
color only, except for a few rows.
Tie the four sides where the crossroads are, to make sure
the base does not shift. Now to make the corners, crisscross
at 90 degrees at the crossroads and double weave all the
way to the end of the two sides. Do the same for all four
sides.

7. Also adjust the structures with the help of your fingernails or a metal rod to move them close together. This design
needs to be close, unlike the single weave, which can be holey. Now interweave the four sides and double weave all the
way to the height you want or to as high as the length of the binders you cut.
To end by the smooth edge, fold one strip to one side and weave following the structure, and fold the other one to the
other side following the weaving pattern. In the photo (left) the first fold is to the left followed by the right.
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