Loon & cattail: Oval porcupine quill/coil sweetgrass basket: Paul St John-Mohawk

Description

A loon with red eye and cattails is atop the lid on this great basket by Paul St John, Mohawk. The loon is one of Maine's most beloved and iconic birds. Loon baskets such as this and some smaller/larger sizes are among the most beloved of Paul St John's works.  (of course all of Paul's work is handmade and every loon basket is unique!)  This is the 16th oval loon basket of this size I have offered by Paul - This loon is swimming on deep blue and even darker blue water - 2 tone water which is unique to this basket ..  some loon baskets by Paul have had 1 cattail or 2 or none..  here there are 3 - These cattail leaves are "fall/winter" yellow green color - others have had a dark or bright green leaf......AND this basket itself slightly larger than most of Paul's regular oval basket - It is 5.75" long (most are 5.25" to 5.5" with the one prior to this one being 6" long -)
The loon's call is heard in the Great North woods on ponds and along Maine's rocky shores.
If you have been lucky enough to encounter a loon while kayaking, canoeing or swimming then you know these are quite large birds, about 3' long. They seem to be drawn to human activity.  I have noticed they appear to be even more curious about young children's voices -  my grandson recently was swimming in a Maine lake and 3 loons joined him!  Very close, quite magical.
This loon is made of black dyed and natural white porcupine quills with a  red dyed eye. On a live loon the red eye is quite a startling feature!  This loon swims on blue dyed quill "water" with brown and yellow/green dyed cattails in back of the loon.  This is traditional quill on birch bark work.
This basket
has birch bark at center of lid and used as the bottom -  then co
iled tidal sweetgrass.  It is 5.75" long, 4.75" across and about 2.5" high.  The birch bark medallion at lid's center is 4.25" long and 3.25" wide.  There is a border of natural white porcupine quills around the outer edge of the birch bark medallion - between the coiled sweetgrass and the medallion.
The loon is of black dyed quills and natural white quills.  It's red eye, the green cattail leaves and brown cattails are all of dyed quill.  It swims atop blue dyed quill water...
Paul St. John now lives in Maine.  He is an enrolled Mohawk tribal member.   He grew up on the Mohawk lands in New York, his father's homeland.  His mother is Passamaquoddy/MicMac/Maliseet - When I saw his work I knew immediately I needed to offer his great baskets.  While quill work and coiled sweetgrass baskets are  historically Maine Indian traditional crafts, currently no one here but Paul St. John is actively practicing this craft.  -  Passamaquoddy basket makers, Jeremy Frey and Otter, both have used some quill work on their baskets...  but quill work on coiled sweetgrass baskets are Paul St John's specialty.
Paul is shown in slideshow above with 2 of his works - one of them is a coiled sweetgrass basket with a side facing cardinal.   He not only does sweetgrass coil baskets and porcupine quill work on birch bark -- but also amazing dolls, Iroquois beadwork, MicMac beadwork,  great moccasins, knife sheaths, medicine bags and so much more!  He is truly a man of many (many many) talents!
Watch this store for more of his pieces.  Can't wait to see what he is going to create next.