The Craft of Basketry Showing the Main Varieties of Plaited and Coiled Work

THE CRAFT OF BASKETRY. SHOWING THE MAIN VARIETIES OF PLAITED AND COILED WORK Coiled Work.—The main varieties of known coiled basket work are (r) Simple oversewn coil, where each stitch passes over the new coil and pierces a portion of the coil below. (a) Furcate coil. If the new stitch splits the stitch in the preceding coil a forked effect is produced, having a superficial suggestion of crochet. (b) Bee-skep coil. Sometimes the stitching catches the foundation together at wide intervals, each stitch passing through the foundation just to the right of the stitch in the coil below. If the stitch passes over two coils it gives a twilled appearance. (c) Sometimes the sewing strip is wound several times round the foun dation between every stitch (as in "lazy squaw" below) which may develop into openwork. (2) Figure of 8. This, on the surface, looks like the simple oversewn coil, but it is worked in the figure of 8, the stitch passing behind, up and over and down in front of the fresh coil; then behind, down and out under the preceding coil. (3) "Lazy squaw" has a twilled effect; the stitch passes in front, up and over the new coil, winding completely round it once, twice or more times as desired, then passes behind and down under the preceding coil and over the new coil, making the characteristic long stitch. If the sewing is wrapped many times round the foun dation for an inch or more, and stitched down only occasionally to the preceding coil, it becomes openwork. (4) Crossed figure of 8, also called "Knot-stitch" or Mariposa. The stitch passes in front, up and over the new coil, and then behind, down and under the preceding coil, as in the long stitch in "lazy squaw," but the sew ing is next brought out between the two coils to the right of the long stitch, which it crosses, giving the appearance of a knot. (5 ) Cycloid or single-element work may be grouped with coiled work, but there is no foundation, the coils, usually of cane or similarly independent material, being coiled or looped into each other. This is especially characteristic of the Malay area.

In both plaited and coiled work patterns are made by overlaid wefts, of ten of contrasting shades or colours, which appear only on the surface. The "Klikitat" or imbricated ware of the Thomp son river Indians, British Columbia, gives a good example. The surface weft is doubled back before being stitched to the coil, and the coil-stitch concealed under it (P1. I., fig. 9).

Decoration and Design.

Symmetry of form, variety in strokes or sewing, contrasts in colour, and definite designs all afford opportunity for artistic expression. Rough baskets for temporary use may be ill-shapen, but in better specimens great care is taken to obtain a pleasing outline, a regular spread, a gradual curve from a square base to a cylindrical body, or to fix the just relation of height to girth. The neat-fingered Malay make presentation rice-baskets in the shape of birds (Pl. I., fig. 6), stepped pyramids or dangling cylinders (to baffle evil spirits), plaited not in simple but in the most complicated strokes, showing extraordinary skill. The varieties of strokes and sewings may be used singly or in combination, making patterns running in bands of varying width, horizontal or vertical. As in the Iban example (Pl. I., fig. 5) , these patterns may be emphasized by the use of wefts coloured by nature or artificially dyed. Black wefts are ob tained by soaking the strips in black mud, or staining them with elderberry or sumach, oak galls or rusty iron; purple is obtained from amaranth or iris petals; alder roots give orange, berberis yel low; the outer sheath of guinea corn (Sorghum) gives the dull red used in Nigeria, and the Indians of Washington mix chewed alder bark and salmon eggs for their vermilion.

Some basket-makers aim only at making attractive baskets, others, perhaps using the same designs, illustrate and enshrine in them religious or magical beliefs, stories of the creation or prayers for good luck. Each design is merely what its maker intends it to be, and can be interpreted only by her. The six-pointed star which is the nucleus of the Malay "mad weave" is the Pusat Belanat (navel of the mullet), but the twisted ornamentation represents rice-grains, and the twisted star the flowers of Mirnusops. Natural and supernatural objects are often represented, e.g., the crab's foot-prints, bending spirit, or shark's wife of Torres straits ; the Ficus, pigeon's eyes, paddle heads or baited hooks of Borneo (Pl. I., fig. 7) ; the butterflies and eagles, snakes and raven of the Pacific coast ; the grave-house of the Tlingit shaman ; the svastika of the Navaho.; or the rain-clouds of the Hopi of Arizona.