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Corey Alston

Coiled sweetgrass and bulrush baskets from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, by the Gullah Geechee maker whose work is in the Smithsonian.

Edition4 pieces, no two alike

MadeSweetgrass, bulrush and palmetto, sewn by hand

ShippingPacked by hand and shipped insured

Sold out

Corey Alston

10 inch Sweetgrass Bread Basket

$525.00

Sold out

Corey Alston

10.5 inch Sweetgrass Bread Basket

$675.00

Corey Alston

14 inch Small Fanner Sweetgrass Basket

$1,100.00

Corey Alston

13 inch Small Fanner Sweetgrass Basket

$956.00

The material

It starts behind the dunes

Before there's a basket, there's the grass. Sweetgrass grows in the sandy ground behind the first line of dunes along the Lowcountry coast. Corey gathers his own by hand and dries it in the sun, where it turns from green to pale gold. That ground is getting harder to reach: as the coast around Charleston has filled with houses and resorts, much of it has been built over or closed off to the weavers who once gathered there.

The maker

Sewn, not woven

Then the grass becomes a spiral. Each basket begins as one tight coil at the center and is built outward, row by row, every coil sewn to the last with a strip of palmetto. The tool is a sewing bone, traditionally a filed-down spoon handle. Corey works darker bulrush in with the sweetgrass. It's the older and tougher of the two, and it's what lets a large basket hold its shape. The technique came to the Lowcountry with the coiled rice baskets of Sierra Leone.

At home

Made to be used

The baskets people bring Corey to repair have usually spent decades on a shelf, and the grass has dried and gone brittle. His view is plain: these were made for work, in the house and in the fields, and they should still be used. Put bread in one at dinner, or lemons on the counter all winter. A basket that's filled, emptied and handled keeps some of the life it was made with.

Read the full story of Corey's work in Our Journal

Practical

Before it ships

How will it arrive?

Packed by hand and shipped insured. If it arrives damaged, send us a photograph and we’ll replace it or make it right.

Can I send it back?

Yes — within fourteen days of delivery. These are sewn by hand, so expect variation in color and shape from basket to basket. That isn’t a fault; it’s the work.

What if it sells before I decide?

Then it’s gone. Each basket is the only one, and there’s no reordering — the next gathering of sweetgrass makes different baskets.

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29 OctoberSandy WhitakerA Cartersville, Georgia studio where self-taught artist Sandy Whitaker has pressed flowers and ferns from her own garden since 2011. Southern Crafted carries her original pressings.

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Two releases a month through the holidays, then one a month. No code, nothing marked down; that isn’t what it’s for.

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Savannah, GA

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Corey Alston

It starts behind the dunes

Sewn, not woven

Made to be used

Before it ships

Next on the list

Get on The Short List

Our Retail Location

114 Bull StreetSavannah, GA

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114 Bull Street
Savannah, GA