Penobscot tatting basket block, ca. 1900
Item 23463 info
Hudson Museum, Univ. of Maine
Carvers selected specific woods to meet their needs: flexible white ash for snowshoe frames, basket handles and rims; hard maple for canoe thwarts and paddles, and tool handles; rot-resistant cedar for canoe linings; resilient hornbeam for bows; easily carved pine for basket gauges; and straight-stocked gray birch and poplar for rootclubs and walking sticks.
This block produced a variety of tatting basket forms, such as acorn-shaped and strawberry-shaped tatting baskets, which have a loop handle to hang from the arm and a hole in the top for the tatting ball's thread to come out.
Item 3 of 27