As a five-year-old girl, Jery B. Taylor learned the art of sweetgrass basket weaving from her grandmother on the grounds of Boone Hall Plantation.
Today, Taylor owns Jery’s Baskets, an artist studio located in the heart of Savannah’s City Market. The studio showcases her handwoven baskets, bowls, trays, fans and vases, as well as her original paintings.
The intricate circular patterns begin with a simple knot of lush green sweetgrass. They quickly evolve into ornate pieces of art that are the perfect memento of a vacation to coastal Georgia. More than a commercial product, these baskets are a lifeline to the endangered Gullah-Geechee culture. They trace its roots to West Africa, and has been featured on HGTV and the Discovery Channel. Taylor’s baskets are even included in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian museums.
Locals and visitors are invited to learn more about the contributions of her West African ancestors through Taylor’s woven works of art. Guests can purchase the DVD, Prelude to a Sweetgrass Basket, which discusses those people who were first brought to Georgia’s Sea Islands in the 1600s
Baskets were hand-woven from sweetgrass, pine needles, palmetto fronds and bulrush to transport, store, fan and slip the prosperous rice crop. The original teachers of this weaving were from the Penn School for freed slaves on St. Helena Island, SC. Taylor learned the technique from the daughter of a Penn School alumnus, who taught her the distinctive pattern in the 1990s.
“I’m the only one left who knows the pattern to make bulrush baskets,” Taylor explained. “I even make a special Jery’s Sweet Rush basket, which combines sweetgrass materials with the bulrush technique.”
Taylor’s determination to keep the Gullah-Geechee culture alive inspired her to take up painting in 2007.
“I find inspiration from a combination of what I see and from my imagination,” she explained. “A lot of the paintings I do are about the life we have lived, from baptisms and the church to working the fields and hanging out clothes on wash days.”
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