I went to see a display of a few of Pat Courtney Gold’s baskets in the visitor’s center at Fort Vancouver. Pat is a Wasco weaver. I am privileged to call her one of my teachers. It is always an inspiration to see her work.
Pat is marking her recent work with red, white and blue bands to honor US soldiers in the Middle-east. The bands are on the underside of the basket so they aren’t visible in the photos above. I couldn’t get a shot of it as the camera didn’t like shooting into the light.
An interesting factoid that I picked up is her take on the origin of the term “Sally” bag. A Sally bag is a cylindrical basket woven from soft materials. They were used for berry picking–among other things. Anyway Pat says that Sally bag came from the Wasco word for basket. I’ve never heard this before and I have no idea what the Wasco word for basket is… I’ll try to find that and update this post.