Woven: The Art of Contemporary Native Basketry
Carol Emarthle-Douglas/ Northern Arapaho and Seminole
I create baskets because I enjoy the challenge of constructing innovative shapes, and designs in my basketry. Coiled baskets is an extremely time consuming process and the baskets I produce in a year’s time are one of a kind.
My inspiration is taken from my Northern Arapaho and Seminole heritage. I have based some of my designs on the Plains style beadwork, ledger art and parfleche designs from my mother’s tribe. My father is from the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and I have also incorporated the colors and patterns of Seminole patchwork into my baskets. I am fortunate to have such a rich heritage to draw upon to inspire my work.
I prefer contemporary materials to produce my baskets, I use hemp twine and waxed linen thread for my large baskets and use round reed with raffia a palm fiber along with silk threads to create my miniature baskets and jewelry pieces. I do utilize both natural and contemporary materials and experiment often to see what will work together to get the result that I want to achieve. The technique I use is the traditional coiling method, which is one of the oldest methods used in basketry.
I consider myself a Traditional/Contemporary basket weaver.
