Sweetgrass Baskets — HS Baskets by Henrietta

From rice field to art gallery.

Sweetgrass baskets are the most enduring artistic expression of the Gullah Geechee people. Their roots lie in West and Central Africa, where coiled-grass basketry was used for winnowing rice, gathering food, and storing grain. Enslaved Africans brought this knowledge to the Carolinas — and that knowledge made Lowcountry rice plantations profitable.

The first baskets here were functional. The rice fanner — a flat, oversized plate — was used to separate grain from husk: workers piled threshed rice in the basket, tossed it into the air, and let the wind carry off the chaff. Other early forms held eggs, vegetables, and tools.

Today these baskets are recognized as cherished works of art, found on museum plinths and in the homes, hotels, and restaurants of the Lowcountry. Henrietta Snype has spent her life carrying the tradition forward — coiling sweetgrass, palmetto stalk, pine needles, and bulrush into shapes both familiar and new.

Largest fanner — a rice fanner basket by Henrietta Snype

The Materials

Four plants, harvested by hand.

Sweetgrass

The body of the basket.

Grows in Charleston's marshes; harvested at low tide between late May and early September, then sun-dried for two to three weeks.

Palmetto

The thread that holds the coil.

Strips of palmetto stalk are split and used to sew each coil to the next — the structural sinew of the form.

Bulrush & Pine Needle

Color and texture.

Bulrush gives the dark brown banding; pine needles bring the warm reddish tones woven into many traditional patterns.

Gentrification has made harvesting harder over the decades — sweetgrass beds that were once open access now sit behind fences. Master weavers have learned to read the changing landscape: where to look, what grade of grass will hold up to coiling, when to stop and let a stand recover.

The Gallery