Just a warning, I am on a soap box for this post!!!! I just saw an article on the Post & Courier website about knock off sweetgrass baskets and the fear of the local basket makers on what this mass produced over-seas fake will do their business. Let me tell you one thing this makes my blood boil.
I LOVE sweetgrass baskets (see pictures above), I have a great collection that B has gotten for me (ten years in the making). Both girls have their own hand-made basket for their Easter basket (a start to a collection I hope).
A handmade sweetgrass basket from a road side stand is a part of my heritage! I grew up riding my bike to the four corners of justice and watching these gifted women make these baskets to life. Each basket is a piece of living history. A tradition passed from generation to generation. Can you put a price on that?!?!?
Apparently Ballard Design and Southern Living thinks you can, what I have to say to that is I have canceled my subscription to Southern Living (don't think I am kidding) and Ballard design can kiss my big white fanny! I will never buy anything from that catalog ever again! The thought of homes being decorated with fake, mass-produced over-seas sweetgrass baskets makes me sick to my stomach.
I encourage you to buy the real thing, a real sweetgrass basket is worth saving up for. Ask the wonderful Lowcountry lady that made the basket to tell you her family history. Remember that story each time you use your basket. Ms. Jameson and Ms. Henrietta have made all my baskets! I cherish this part of the Lowcountry and hope that everyone else who feels the same way will do their best to make everyone around them understand the importance of buying the real thing!
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