Miniature Tohono O\'odham Horsehair Basket-Rare Museum Quality!
Artist -Addie Molina
Width- 2 1/4\"/ 61mm
Weight 7 grams
Height 1/2\" / 15mm
(I have used a Golden Delicious Apple in the pictures for scal
I will provide you withan August 2004 Arizona Highways magazine that has a wonderful article about O\'odham Horsehair Weavings with your order.
The display case is included
The Tohono O\'odham people are world-famous for their intricately woven miniature horsehair baskets, many of which feature pictorial themes. The horsehair is all natural in colors of black, white, and shades of brown. Horsehair baskets were first produced by the Tohono O\'odham as miniature versions of their yucca baskets to sell to tourists. In the 1970\'s, the weavers began to use fine stitches andto make figures. Then in the 1980\'s, some of the young women weavers started to make horsehair baskets as large as 12\" in diameter with very elaborate designs.
Their present tribal lands, established in 1874, consist of a three parcel Native Americanreservation of 2,854,881 acres (approximately 5,000 square miles), in the Sonoran Desert in south central Arizona and into Mexico, an area comparable in size to the state of Connecticut, but with a population of 27,500 members. Their history is traced back to the Pima tribes who settled along thebanks of the Gila River and who later migrated to the banks of the Santa Cruz River in southern Arizona south of the currentmetropolitan areaof Tucson. Basket making is a long honored tradition of the Tohono O\'odham people who make baskets from various materials such as willow, yuccaand horsehair. Traditionally,the men harvested the materials and thewomen were the basketmakers.Tohono O\'odhambasketmakers are almost allwomen.
Decorative basket patterns includethe well-known \"man in the maze\" pattern, fret designs, turtle back designs, coyote tracks, dragging coyote tracks, cross designs, stars, squash blossoms, dust-devils, human figures, saguaro fruit picking scenes, and representations of antelopes, bats, bees, ducks, humming birds, rattlesnakes, and turtles. Some designs are done in the negative using devil\'s claw as thebackground and yucca or willow for the design.
These amazing baskets are unique to each maker and represent many hours of intricate artistry. The basket pictured is the one you will recieve. Living here in Tucson, I was fortunate in my Indian Trading business to meet up with a couple ofTraders that really opened up the trading market with the Tohono O\'odham more than thirty years ago. They are still the only traders that deal with many of the weavers and the most talented ones in particular. Those that I have listed as \"Museum Quality\" demonstrate an exceptional level of skill! I was able to procure a dozen fine specimens of rare andamazing horsehair baskets in trade for Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni Jewelry. I am offering them now for your consideration. These select Tohono O\'odham horsehair basketsare heirloom quality and works of fine art.I hope that one of them speaks to your heart!
You might enjoy watching this traditional Tohono O\'odham Basket Dance on Video
Shipping in the United States and Insurance are included, of course.
Thank You!
