TWINING

A Haida woman from the village of Masset weaves a spruce root basket in 1897. The basket is hung upside down, warps hanging down—the same orientation used for the weaving of robes.
Courtesy Field Museum. Photo (crop view) by Edward P. Allen. CSA854

Weaving Connections: Basketry and Textiles

Twining, the foundational weaving technique used in both raven’s tail and Chilkat weaving, is used around the world. In basketry, the warps radiate from the center of the bottom like the spokes of a wheel. Starting at the center, a pair of wefts weave in and out around the warps, and slowly the bottom takes shape until the warps are turned vertically and weaving starts on the sides. The same basic technique is used to weave flat textiles: the warps are hung on the loom from a horizontal bar, and the wefts twine in and out, across from left to right.

The tribes of the Northwest Coast made robes of shredded yellow cedar bark for both everyday and ceremonial use. The bark is finely shredded, and the resulting material is soft and comfortable, and warm even when wet. Some of these garments were embellished with wefts made of mountain goat wool to produce geometric patterns also found in raven’s tail weaving.

The eye-dazzling geometric patterns of raven’s tail textiles, woven in black on a white field and highlighted with traces of yellow, are like patterns used in baskets.