History in the Making

Basket weaving is an ancient and practical art form that is still practiced today.

- HOPE ELLIS-ASHBURN

Starting her career as an extension agent in home economics, now family and consumer sciences (FCS), and ending it as a district FCS program leader, Brenda Kucharski of Spring City, Tennessee retired from a 40-year career with the University of Tennessee Extension Service. A skilled basket maker, Kucharski shares some fascinating details of her craft.

HISTORY OF BASKET WEAVING

According to Kucharski, basket use in our history goes as far back as the history of man.

"Archeologists have found clay imprints of tightly woven materials from the Stone Age," she says. "Records show the Egyptians using baskets 7,000 years ago. Exodus 2:3 (NIV) gives the account of Moses being hidden in a basket on the Nile River." Kucharski says that with records of baskets being used by the Assyrians, Greeks, Romans and others, it's only natural that the pioneer Americans relied on baskets for many uses in their daily lives.

In early America, baskets were used for various tasks. These included heavy agricultural baskets used for feeding livestock, gathering eggs and sifting grain. There were also sturdy storage baskets that held laundry and linens and carried butter and eggs to the store for bartering for groceries and household items.

More delicate baskets were used for gathering berries and mushrooms, storing seeds, sewing,knitting and spinning items. "Baskets were often named for their use or content such as grain riddles, winnowing baskets, fish traps, egg, coal, berry, clothes, cradle and laundry baskets," Kucharski says.