In New England Shaker communities, baskets were generally woven of black ash with handles of ash or other strong woods – maple, hickory, or oak. Preparation of material for baskets was arduous. Trees were felled and hauled, the bark was removed, and tree trunks were pounded until the annual growth rings could be pulled off the trunk, ring by ring, in order to make splints.
Heavier splints were shaped into upright ribs for the basket. Splints were split again, and for fancy baskets yet again, to make the thinner horizontal weavers. Shaker baskets were usually made on wooden forms, giving the baskets distinctive, consistent, and replicable shapes.
Splints were soaked to be pliable for weaving. Baskets had to dry before rims and handles could be attached. While rims and handles were often shaped using a drawknife or spoke-shave, at the peak of basket production, Shakers made these parts with power shaping machines.
Collections Manager
Sharon Duane Koomler is a Shaker scholar and traditional letterpress printer living in upstate New York. She has academic degrees in American Folklore from Indiana University and Western Kentucky University. Sharon has worked at Shaker Museums from Kentucky to New Hampshire as an educator, curator, consultant, and director. She has written and published on Shaker material culture and spirituality, and lectured widely on Shaker art, life, and belief. Sharon has a particular interest in the under-researched social aspects of Shaker life and ways in which Shakers practiced inclusion and intentionality.