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October Issue 2007
Charleston Crafts in Charleston, SC, Features Works by Aleathia Manigault & Dorinda Harmon
Charleston Crafts in Charleston, SC, will present
the exhibit, Rhythms of Basketry, featuring works by Aleathia
Manigault and Dorinda Harmon, from Oct. 5 - 31, 2007.
Manigault and Harmon have been friends and colleagues since 1989.
Early member of Charleston Crafts cooperative, they have exchanged
basket weaving adventures and accomplishments while working in
different weaving traditions and styles.
Aleathia Manigault
At the age of six, Manigault learned the art of sweetgrass basketry from her grandmother Herline Coakley in Mt. Pleasant, SC. She has passed the art form down to her children and grandchildren. The unique shapes and styles make her work a true art form based on the basketry tradition brought to America by slaves from Sierra Leone on the West Coast of Africa.
Manigault is known for her woven hats which have the flavor of traditional headgear as well as modern styles. Reaching beyond the basic basket forms, she creates handbags and jewelry along with household items such as lamps and utility baskets using age-old stitching techniques. She uses sweetgrass, bulrush, and pine needles sewn together into rows using palmetto fronds for binding.
Manigault's prize-winning baskets are in collections including the City of Charleston Mayor's Purchase award from the 1991 Moja Arts Festival. She has also been the recipient of awards at Drayton Hall Arts and Crafts Festival and the 1993 Piccolo Spoleto Juried Art Show.
"Sweetgrass basketry is part of my soul. In spite of recent health obstacles, sewing baskets is an activity that gives me strength and comfort. It connects me with my family; it gives me the opportunity to express my own styles."
Dorinda Harmon
Dorinda Harmon has been working in fibers since the age of 3. Needle arts taught to her by her mother and grandmother and their friends engaged her early on. By high school, she was sewing and designing her own clothes. Through undergraduate and graduate school, she kept her hand in fiber arts creating clothing and venturing into stuffed-work and quilting. She exhibited her first public work for sale in a gallery in Columbia in 1979.
In addition to fiber arts, she works also in surface design on cloth via fabric collage and marbling. Basketmaking came into her life through a stint as a historic interpreter at Charles Towne Landing in the mid-1980s. Self-taught, Harmon set a goal of recreating every basket style she found while researching the craft. Since that time, she has introduced over 4,000 students to basketmaking in classes held throughout the Lowcountry. Beginning with traditional styles and patterns, it did not take long for her to "stretch" the medium to include mermaids, seashells, volcanos, and other unusual 3-D forms as well as incorporating a variety of natural materials.
"I have stayed with basket weaving because
of the opportunities to challenge the medium; to make the materials
go where I want them to go to create movement in a stationary
object. Each project takes shape when I select materials, colors,
and have a general concept of what I want to achieve in mind.
Sometimes I am surprised at the outcome!"
"Teaching basketmaking is something I truly love," adds
Harmon. "I learn something from every class. There are only
a few basic rules so the opportunity to create a different technique
or pattern is wide-open."
Harmon also is a co-coordinator of the annual Piccolo Spoleto Crafts Shows and a frequent juror for other regional art and craft events.
Both women have supportive families who have been known to join in the weaving process along with helping to gather grass, palmetto, vines, and more. Both share a Lowcountry upbringing. Their traditions, materials, and styles differ widely but they both take pride in their craft. Continually taking the basics into new avenues is what drives both artists to continue to weave and stitch.
For further information check our SC Commercial
Gallery listings, call the gallery at 843/723-2938 or visit (www.CharlestonCrafts.org).
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