Basket Materials Preparation

Yvonne Peterson, a renowned Chehalis basket maker, hosts a basket materials preparation workshop in August 2008. We work with cedar bark, sweetgrass, cattail, beargrass, raffia, and alder bark which is shredded by hand and soaked to produce a deep orange dye. Janelle Black Owl helps me keep up and humbles me with with a cedar rose made in a heartbeat. Since then I've made one heart, a technique taught to children. Yup, child, that's me.