Pine Needle Basketry       

A 19th Century Craft Revived

Pine Needle Raffia Basketry is a coiling technique using the long leaf pine needles of America and raffia from palm trees of Madagascar.

The first know use of pine needles as the basic material for basketry occured during the Civil War. A Mrs. M.J. McAfee of southern Georgia made a hat of pine needle coils bound together with cotton thread. It is said to be the first pine needle item made.

This exhibit was organized by Mrs. Doris Canon Blomquist, a local master of this art form and the teacher of many who practice it.