Nina Kiyaykina. Russian-Aleut / Grass Basket Weaver.
A lid from one of these miniature baskets.
Diameter - 1 inch (2.5 cm).
Aleut grass baskets are among the finest in the world of basketry. Traditional technique is tightly woven and as fine as linen. The only tool used is a sharp fingernail to continually split a blade of grass into finer and finer strips until nearly as thin a thread of linen. It takes three to six months to complete a basket working three to four hours a day.
Today there are only three or four traditional Aleut grass basket weavers in the world. Nina is one of them.
This basket is sitting on a 10 cent Canadian coin.
The diameter of this basket is 0.3 inches (0.7 cm).
Copyright © 2006 by Nina Kiyaykina. All rights reserved.
Contact helen@aleutbaskets.com.