FCAC Offerings & Upcoming Arts Events in T4C

Basket Making Workshop by Jennifer
at the Tiverton Bazaar
July 26, 2025 11am-3pm
Cost $125
Join Jennifer Lee for a memorable workshop where you will learn how to make and take home a beautiful, one of a kind, functional, Bark Basket. Lee’s baskets are a reflection of both heritage and research. Working with the bark to form a basket is a feast for the senses as you explore the bark in so many new ways. Jennifer will guide you through this process with the expertise honed from over 40 years of basket making. She has received awards from the Mohegan Wigwam Festival, Saratoga Native American Festival,
and the Kearsarge Indian Museum. This is a unique experience
you truly do not want to miss!

All tools will be provided, but if you’d like to bring your own, you’ll need: scissors, utility knife, needle-nose pliers, four-sided awl, bowl for water. (BRING: An apron)

A Mokok is a Northeast woodland Native American style container made of bark, stitched with spruce roots. The bottom is rectangular; the top is round or oval. They were originally used to harvest and store food and accoutrements. In this class, you’ll learn to sew with spruce roots that you’ll prepare. If the roots are thick enough, you'll split them. An inner and outer rim is made by splitting a red willow stick bent gradually. Different stitching patterns will be shown. If you finish in time and so desire, you can embellish your basket with a collar and /or appliqué. The white pine bark baskets are easier to make than ash; they don’t require much hand strength. They smell delicious, handle like leather when wet, and dry like wood. But sometimes the pine bark beetle will find them and start eating them. You can bake them in the oven at 350 for 1/2 hour to kill the bugs. In 40 years of making them, it’s happened maybe 7 times. I have pine bark baskets that I have used for 20 years without a problem. Bark is to the Northeast woodland Tribes as Bison is to the Tribes of the Great Plains; The Lakota, Cheyanne, Osage, etc. A season for harvesting bark varies by species, weather, and growing situation.The sustainable harvesting of bark, roots, and Red Willow will be discussed.