Mohawk basket maker Carrie Hill creates stunning black ash and sweetgrass baskets under the name Chill Baskets. Some of her creations are the size of thimbles, while others are so big they must be photographed outside under natural light. But whether small or large, her baskets are intricate, colorful and beautifully designed.
A large basket by Carrie Hill (St. Regis Mohawk).
Hill lives and works in Akwesasne, New York, a unique place for Indigenous basketry. “Akwesasne is known as the Haudenosaunee community with the strongest continuous tradition of basket making,” she writes on her website. “Basket making is a cultural process; a way of learning about the cycles of nature and the right way to live in balance with the land by the careful gathering of materials.”
Carrie Hill in her New York studio.
Hill recently attended her fourth Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market in Phoenix. “It is easily one if my favorite markets to be a part of with my black ash splint and sweetgrass creations,” she says of the experience. “I like to bring a variety of pieces with me that showcase my weaving creativity.”
A small basket Hill recently took to Phoenix for the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market.
Her work “takes a contemporary approach using traditional weaving techniques handed down through generations,” she says. Hill first worked at a school in Hogansburg, New York, but left in 2014 to become a fulltime artist. Since then her work has been seen at events around the country, as well as U.S. Embassies around the world. She is also a teacher who hosts basketry workshops, which allow her pass her creative knowledge down to new generations of artists.
Follow her work at www.chill-baskets.com and on Instagram ( chillbaskets).
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