Sherry and Bill Gould are Western Abenaki Brown Ash and Sweet grass basket makers. They are each juried members of  The League Of NH Craftsmen and enrolled members of  The  Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe . Sherry studied two years with master basket maker Jeanie Brink of Barre, VT through a grant from the New Hampshire Arts Council Folk Arts apprenticeship program. Sherry and Bill studied utilitarian Abenaki baskets under Newt Washburn of Bethlehem, NH through the NH Arts Council program. Some of Sherry’s Abenaki ancestors were utilitarian basket makers in Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Eber Dyer, her great-grandfather, was one of the weavers at Peterborough Basket Company in Peterborough, NH. Bill is a logger with Native American heritage.

These baskets are created using the same traditions that Abenaki people have used through time. They start with the Brown Ash tree which is traditionally felled and pounded by an Abenaki man. The strips of growth rings are then split down to very thin layers and the underside of the outer two layers are scraped smooth. The basket maker then moistens and cuts the strips down to the size splint needed for any given basket.

Sweet grass is gathered from local wild habitats, also in a traditional way. It is dried and stored out of the light to preserve its color until needed for a particular basket. Keeping the basket out of the light will also preserve the color of the sweet grass.



Phone: 603-938-2613
Email: billgould@tds.net
              sherrygould@tds.net