Low Country Sweetgrass Baskets Charleston, South CarolinaCharleston Market
We always like to visit Charleston on Market when in Charleston. Local artisans are making and selling their Low Country Sweetgrass Baskets.
A kitchen store is selling specialty rice and grits in Sweetgrass Baskets
While the purpose of this picture is to show you the Sweetgrass Baskets let me take time to tell you about Charleston Cooks. Charleston Cooks is a cool Kitchen Store that is worth a stop when you are in Charleston. Great Lowcountry cooking starts with a great kitchen and great Lowcountry kitchens start at Charleston Cooks! This Maverick kitchen store is your place to shop for high performance kitchen tools, appliances and paraphernalia. http://www.mavericksouthernkitchens.com/cooks/store.html Sweetgrass Baskets for sale at Charleston Market
You can watch the artisans creating those sweetgrass gaskets when you stroll through Charleston Market. The traditional coiled Gullah style sweetgrass basket is made in the South Carolina Low Country in and around Mt. Pleasant in Charleston County and on the Sea Islands - a group of islands off the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and North Florida. The sweetgrass basket art form was brought to this country in the latter half of the seventeenth century by West Africans who adapted the basketry traditions of their homeland to the available indigenous materials to make work baskets that were needed on the rice plantations. This type of basket is coil-sewn rather than plaited or twined. The sharpened end of a silver spoon "sewing bone" was used to create openings in the coil as stitching progressed. The most common material used as the core bundle in early work baskets was black rush (Juncus roemerianus) known locally as bulrush, rushel or needlegrass. The coils were bound with strips of white oak (Quercus alba) or saw palmetto stem (Serenoa repens). Sweetgrass (Muhlenbergia filipes) commonly known as purple muhly grass became popular only at the beginning of the twentieth century, when makers in Mount Pleasant began making "show baskets" to sell to the tourists along Route 17. Later light duty baskets are commonly made of Sweetgrass stitched with palm leaf (Sabal palmetto). Long Leaf Pine needles (Pinus palustris) or bulrush may be added to the coil as a decorative element.
Sweetgrass Baskets for sale at Charleston Market
Traditionally this type of basket was made in shapes used on the southern plantations such as the rice fanner. "Fannah" baskets made this way were used to process rice. A person would fan rice by tossing it in the air to separate the chaff from the hull. West Africans still use this type of large, round, shallow basket when farming rice the old way. Occasionally overlay coils in a spiral or other geometric design are incorporated to the basic form for decorative purposes. More recently decorative versions of this basket form have been made by basketmakers who sold their wares from roadside stands along US-17 outside Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Currently these baskets are also available at street vendors and market locations in Charleston as well as in online shops. These vendors are in Charleston Market. Sweetgrass Baskets for sale at Charleston Market
Baskets are made of sweetgrass (Muhlenbergia filipes) which is harvested in the spring and summer by "pullers," who slip it out of its roots, like knives from sheaths. It is a long-stemmed plant that grows near the ocean behind the dune line and along the boundaries between marsh and forest. Weavers put fresh grasses out in the sun to dry for several days to several weeks, depending on the season before sewing them coil upon coil. The Gullah
culture, a blend of West African, European and Native American cultures, became
the lifestyle of West African slaves isolated from the mainland. The word "Gullah"
is believed to be a corruption of Angola or "'Gola," the origin point
of many slaves who were brought to the Carolinas. The Gullah remember their past
and look toward the future preservation of their cultures which is distinguished
by the crafts of sweet grass basket sewing, quilt making and fish net weaving. Click here for some South Carolina travellogsUntil next time remember how good life is. More South Carolina AdventuresAdventures by State ** More 2010 Travel Adventures
Mike & Joyce Hendrix
Mike & Joyce Hendrix who we are We hope you liked this page. If you do you might be interested in some of our other Travel Adventures: Mike & Joyce Hendrix's home page Home ** Travel Adventures by Year ** Travel Adventures by State ** Plants ** Marine-Boats ** Geology ** Exciting Drives ** Cute Signs ** RV Subjects ** Miscellaneous Subjects
We would love to hear from you......just put "info" in the place of "FAKE" in this address: FAKE@travellogs.us Until next time remember how good life is.
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