Coiled sweetgrass basket sewn by Sue Middleton

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A round sweetgrass basket (a) with lid (b) sewn by Sue Middleton. The basket is made of coils of dried sweetgrass bound with strips of dried palmetto, with pine needles sewn in for color. The base of the basket has a flat bottom, with pine needles creating a darker circle in the middle of the base. Rising up from the base are straight sides with one coil of sweetgrass sewn in around the exterior of the basket in a decorative pattern that rises up straight from the base, runs along the top for several inches, then straight back down to the base, follows along the base for several inches, and then repeats. Behind the decorative coil is a band of darker pine needles. Above the deorative coil, the sides of the basket begin to slope inward, forming a narrower mouth for the lid to fit over.

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