Basket Weaving and Willow Stories Art Exhibit

Rees Elementary is a great place to see the arts in action. The “Willow Stories” basket weaving exhibit was brought to us by the Utah Arts Council. To go along with this exhibit, a basket weaver, Corinne Bitsinnie came to Rees Elementary to show the students how to weave a basket. She starts out by pulling out a stick of sumac out of a bundle of sticks. Then they cut and split the sumac into three. Some of the first grade teachers got to help. Mrs. Jacquelyn Searle was the first one to try it. She had to hold one piece in her mouth and two pieces in each hand and then pulled back with her head and diagonal with her hands. She broke it in her mouth. Then Mrs. Jenise Rowley tried, she broke the piece in her right hand. Finally, Miss. Annette Windley tried she started out with a new stick of sumac because the other stick was broken into too many pieces. She got so close to splitting the stick into three perfect pieces but she broke the stick an inch before she got to the end of the stick. It was time for the next step, Mrs. Brenda Beyal said that you need to let the sumac dry for three days then you start to dye the sumac any color you want. The Native Americans used to find different colors of berries in the wild to make the dyes, now they use clothing dye. They would separate the berries into different bowls and they would mash them up and then add a little bit of water and mix it up a little more. Then they would dip the sumac in one of the color bowls, pull it out, and let it dry and then you could start weaving. Mrs. Brenda Beyal also told the kids that the smaller the basket the longer it takes to make, the bigger the basket the shorter the time it takes to make.