Basketmakers seem to have a profound connection to their natural environment. The traditional basketmakers in the exhibit represent diverse cultures and regions of the South. For these basketmakers, the basket begins with the collecting and careful preparation of the materials used, whether that is sweetgrass, white oak splits, pine needles, or river cane. When the material that they use for basketmaking is threatened, whether by logging or development, they feel that loss. Clay Burnette, although he does not make traditional baskets, also enjoys the process of collecting his preferred material, pine needles. He is particularly excited when he discovers very long needles in the woods on his property.

Billie Ruth Sudduth takes a different approach to basketmaking. For her, the process of basketmaking begins with an idea, a mathematical concept that she

will express through her baskets. But even though she does not collect her own basketmaking materials, she does feel that her basketmaking connects her to the natural world. The mathematical concept she expresses through many of her baskets is called the Nature Sequence of Fibonacci numbers.

It is a sequence that is seen in natural forms like seashells, flower petals and the caps of acorns. Sudduth feels that using this naturally occurring rhythm as the basis of her weaving reaffirms her connection to the natural world.