Basket Weaver Draws From Native Culture

Definitely the different colors of the seasons inspire me. I notice I change as the seasons change and I'm looking outside and I see the colors are beautiful, the landscape's different everywhere you go. Warm Springs means home to me in the sense that this is where I've grown up, this is a place of culture and beauty. I do like to work outside while I'm working on my baskets whether it be the corn husk baskets or pine needle baskets just because outside it inspires me with the natural beauty that outdoors, the leaves changing in the fall turning orange and red and yellow. All those colors start to come out in the baskets that I'm making just because they're so beautiful. Springtime all the different greens there's the bright greens, the dark greens those are all just as beautiful. So every season in Central Oregon in Warm Springs even with the high deserts the browns those all come out into the baskets that I make myself personally just because seeing them inspires that color design in my baskets. The first time I learned how to make a basket was at our local culture camp and it's for children from 10 to 12 years old and I picked baskets because I thought oh I think I can do that. I finished it went home showed my mom then she's like well I know how to make baskets I'll show you some things also. So it was a connection with my mom and in terms of that was her connection with her mom. They would travel together learn go to classes and then it turned into me and my mom traveling going to classes teaching and that's my connection is it's that love that my mom has shown me for the baskets and it's been instilled in me and I appreciate the artwork the hard work that goes into them and I may not be great at it but I love learning and teaching and what I'm doing is the false embroidery technique so you're only wrapping around the outside of outside of the basket right basically on the inside your design does not show up because of the false embroidery technique so all your design is going to show up on the outside of the basket. The corn husk it is a rarity not very many people make them or even offer for selling of them because not very many people teach corn husk and so I just see this as a way that people can preserve part of their culture and be able to pass it down. The hopes for my teaching and even me doing it is finding that next person I'm hoping for that one person that's going to carry it on that it touches them just as much as it's touched me that they want to keep doing it and I want to find maybe a handful of people like that in my lifetime.