Molly made this basket around 1950 for one of Elsie Paul’s children. Elsie is Molly’s grand-daughter and was raised by her grandmother. She explained that the butterfly motif used on this basket was also used by Molly’s sister, Katherine (Bob) Dominick and Molly’s daughter, Agnes McGee. See baskets PC EP5 and PC EP3 made by these two women. Slaimmon, Klahoose and Homalco basket makers frequently used beaded ‘chevron’ designs around the head end of baby baskets
Date of manufacture: 1950
Motif: butterfly and chevrons (Beaded designs #40, #31 (but with 5 strips of beading/slat rather than 4) and#2 (along bundle coil rim).
Slat coil baby basket.
Technique: Slat coil construction with predominately beaded designs (the center of each beaded ‘butterfly’ figure has 2 imbricated blocks). There is a single row of bundle coil around the top of the cradle wall.
Materials: Cedar wood slats, split cedar or spruce root.
Decoration is of bitter cherry bark in its natural red state and dyed black. White designs are of canary grass.