This small egg basket is woven from a combination of wood splints and round reeds. A God’s Eye woven design connects the rim and the handle, which is covered with a plain weave. Artist Ira Blount’s eye for color is clearly visible in his combination of light, dark, and reddish natural hues. The variation in color, as well as reed and splint size and shape, gives the basket depth and texture.
This small basket is made of wood splints and round reeds woven in a plain weave. Purple reeds surround the woven God’s Eye design that connects the handle to the body of the basket. Glass pony beads attached to the handle complement the purple reeds, giving this piece a colorful, playful aesthetic.
This small round basket is made from natural-colored wood splints and round reeds woven in a plain weave. The handle is covered with a plain weave. The basket is noteworthy for its delicate intricacy and precision.
The Talking Drum is an hourglass-shaped pressure drum so-named because it can imitate spoken language's intonations and rhythms. At either end of the drum’s body, the drum's heads are made of animal hide, fish skin, or another membrane wrapped around the drum's wooden hoop. Leather cords or thongs run the length of the drum's body and are bound around both hoops. The drum player holds the drum und
This tongue plane can cut interlocking wood joints, also known as tongue and groove, for making flooring and furniture. In the eighteenth century, skilled artisans crafted homes and furnishings using a variety of planes—the power tools of their time—created by talented, trained toolmakers. This plane’s maker stands out for his expertise in designing planes used to shape specialized wood surfaces,
This container, with its curved, concave base, is made of tree bark. Green waxed linen cord adorns the wood splint rim and the handle. The blue ribbon marks the First Premium award from the Calvert County Fair held in Prince Frederick, Maryland. The award denotes local recognition of artist Ira Blount’s work, and enabled him to reach a wider audience, in hopes of, as he expressed it, “lifting [the
This container is made of smooth tree bark folded and bent at the edges. The rim is a wood splint, and the handle retains some of the original nodes of the twig from which it was shaped. This encourages the viewer to consider the physical environments in which the materials were found and transformed. The container is accented with reddish-orange and white beads and orange waxed linen.