A stunning, finely coiled basket with lid made by Yup’ik weaver Jane Wiseman. Wiseman began making baskets at the age of 10 in her village of Chefornak, Alaska. She harvests and processes grasses for her baskets by hand. Her baskets can be found in Museums, galleries and private collections including the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. This basket was featured in the exhibition Alaska: Life of the Arctic Tundra (2008) and published in the February, 2022, issue of Alaska Magazine. [1]

This lidded basket is constructed using a coiling method with wefts of grass sewn in interlocking stitches around coiled rods. Imbricated on the side of the basket are diagonal rows of butterfly motifs made of blue, red, and brown dyed grass. The flat-topped lid is fashioned with a knob to lift the lid from the body of the basket. The coiled lid is designed with a recessed rim that sits perfectly inside the basket for a nearly seamless fit.

1. “The Art and Utility of Grass Baskets” by Michael Engelhard, February 27, 2022. https://alaskamagazine.com/authentic-alaska/culture/the-art-and-utility-of-grass-baskets/. Accessed March 13, 2025.

Sarah Raven