Sm Ring Basket, 4 directional/double curve: Sue Thompson (Pi'htalo) Penobscot

Description

CLEARANCE PRICE:  $
26.75
WAS:  $
34.85
A small "cathead" style basket by Susan "Pi'htalo"/longtail Thompson, Penobscot basketmaker.  Cathead baskets are a very old Wabanaki basket form.  They have a square bottom and are woven up to a round top.  The 4 corners of the bottom of the basket form points that the basket sets on - the spaces between the corners are rounded and when turned upside down the basket looks like a cat's head, with ears and the rounded space between them.  Sue has added the 4 directional colors/4 colors of man - red, white, yellow and blue/black to the front, beneath that she has placed a decorative ash splint curl in the traditional Wabanaki "double curve" design.
This "ring basket" would be perfect for storing rings or earrings, a small necklace etc.  Sue has placed a small braid of tidal sweetgrass in the basket and tied it to form 2 "rings".  (see second to last photo)  This will come inside the basket.
This is 2.5" square at bottom, 2.5" diameter at top and it stands 1.5" high. Made of brown ash, the traditional material of Maine and Eastern Canadian Wabanaki basketmakers, this has plain tidal sweetgrass wrapping the rim of the basket.  Sue has signed the bottom of the baske, "Sue Thompson, Penobscot Nation, Maine" .... dated "2017" and with her maker's mark - looks similar to 88.
Sue has been making baskets on and off for several years with her talented sisters, Pam Thompson Cunningham and Kimberly Thompson Bryant.  Pam and Kim are well known, highly regarded Penobscot basketmakers who along with Kim's daughter Ganessa make up one of Maine's most respected families of Penobscot basketmakers.   The Thompson sisters' great-grandmother was also a basketmaker (see her photo w/baskets - last photo in slideshow)
Sue told me that she is using a new type of dye, not the more commonly used aniline dye.  She is using professional grade paint which is permanent, non-toxic and UV resistant (aniline dyes fade in light!)  ...  Sue says she loves painting and drawing - so has enjoyed experimenting with paints for baskets.
Last photo is a pic of Sue's great-grandmother, ssipsis, selling her baskets about 1920.  To make some of her basket forms, Sue's sister Pam Cunningham uses some of her ssipsis's basket making tools - gauges, crooked knives and wooden molds.
Wabanaki - the confederacy of 5 tribes living in Maine, Vermont and Eastern Canada - The Abenaki, Maliseet, MicMac, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot.