Bliss McIntosh

I have been making traditional baskets from locally harvested materials for the past 49 years. Sometimes I work in black ash splint that I pound myself. Other times I work in sewed birch bark containers from bark that I have harvested under the direction of a forester. I like to make useful vessels that reflect the ancient traditions of this area, but with a fresh look at each piece of bark or wood as it comes along. This practice never gets old for me as each piece is different and each moment of "making" is new. I follow both the styles of northern hemisphere indigenous people and the styles made by human beings over millions of years in response to whatever natural material was available to them and whatever task they needed the vessel to accomplish. My tools are simple and few.