Making a Birch Bark Basket

A set of 61 photographs of Grace Ratt of Sucker River showing the making of a birch bark basket. -p01 to -p02: Grace sets off with Margaret Beament to gather materials for her work - the bush provides everything. -p03 to -p07: Grace tests several trees and finally selects one and takes the bark she needs. -p08 to -p12: She goes on to a stand of black spruce where she uses her cane to locate and pull up spruce roots. -p13 to -p15: She collects enough for her work and ties them to take home. Spruce roots are very long, thin, supple and near the surface under the moss. -p16: The spruce roots have been dyed and are soaking to keep them flexible. -p17 to -p21: Grace cuts the bark the size she wants and curls it into a cylinder. She is going to make quite a small basket so the demonstration can be finished in one day. -p22 to -p27: Grace whittles several little pegs. She then uses an awl to make a series of holes through the two layers of bark where they overlap, and uses the pegs to 'pin' the edges together. -p28 to -p30: The top is trimmed even and now it is ready. -p31 to -p33: She takes a piece of the root that she has peeled, split, and dyed, and sews the edges together replacing the pegs with two neat stitches at each peg. -p34 to -p41: Now comes the bottom. Grace traces the size using her scissors. She then cuts it out and trims it carefully. -p42 to -p44: Again, she punches holes at intervals and pegs the top and bottom together. -p45: Here you can see clearly the neat stitches on the side. -p46 to -p49: Grace adds dyed root around the bottom, punches holes through both layers of bark, and sews all pieces together at once. -p50 to -p54: She then scrapes the spruce root thin and bends it into a hoop to fit around the outside at the top. -p55 to -p57: She sews over it with different colours of root. For every stitch she must punch a hole carefully at varying depths from the edge so they won't form a line and tear. -p58: A beautiful little basket. -p59: The materials and tools: birch bark, spruce root, scissors, a knife, and an awl, and two examples of an open basket. -p60: Grace explains the use of the awl to Margaret. -p61: Margaret Beament, the photographer and a friend, brought the slides for Grace to see - she seems pleased with them.

Historical note:

Photographs of Grace Ratt of Sucker River north of La Ronge, taken in 1974 by Margaret Beament with the support of La Ronge Community TV and La Ronge Region Community College.