Sweetgrass Basket Making Class

123 King Street,Georgetown SC 29440

26 November, 2022

Description

Learn to make traditional sweetgrass baskets with master basket maker Vera Manigault on November 26, 2022, from 12 pm to 2 pm ET at the Gullah Museum in Georgetown, SC. Vera is the eighth generation of her family to create these unique baskets from sweetgrass, bullrush, and palmetto leaves. The sweetgrass baskets made for centuries by Gullah Geechee people are almost identical in style to the shukublay baskets of their enslaved ancestors from Sierra Leone, where learning to coil baskets "so tightly they could hold water" was an important rite of passage in West African tribes like the Mende and the Temne. Participants will then spend the the class: Learning the difference between basket sewing and weaving.Making their own coil as Vera guides them.All materials and tools will be supplied.Come learn about an incredible craft that has been a staple of culture, art, and history in the South Carolina Lowcountry since the 17th Century!