Kelli Palmer (Warm Springs) is a Warm Springs Cornhusk Weaver. Palmer uses dried cornhusk, hemp, and buckskin (brain-tanned, smoked deer hide) to make her traditional baskets. Palmer, an Oregon Folklife Network Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program Master Artist in 2012, creates cornhusk baskets traditionally worn around the waist and used for dried food storage.
Bio
Kelli Palmer is a traditional basket weaver and enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. She weaves traditional wapus, also called sally bags, used for root gathering as well as double-twined cornhusk storage baskets. Palmer grew up around baskets and attended basket weaving classes with her mother, Eraina Palmer, who taught her to weave. Attending a gathering of the Northwest Native American Basketweavers Association turned an interest into a passion. Palmer’s home was soon covered in string, yarn, and twine as she experimented with materials, adding buttons, shells, beads, and whatever else she felt would add to the beauty of a basket. Eraina Palmer, a resource and inspiration for her daughter, has encouraged Kelli to weave cornhusk baskets, which involve a twining technique known as false embroidery; the double-twining process allows for designs on the exterior of the basket. Kelli Palmer values the familial connection involved with maintaining and passing on this intricate and increasingly rare method of basket weaving.Palmer wants to ensure that her own efforts to weave and teach classes encourage others to take up this traditional art to foster its preservation and continuity. Palmer's many recognitions for her work include awards at the All Things Considered show at the Fuller Craft Museum, the Central Oregon Community College Display Show, and several Tribal art shows. In 2009, the National Basketry Convention in Portland, Oregon invited Palmer to showcase her work and teach classes. She has also taught classes at Central Oregon Community College, Northwest Indian College, High Desert Museum, 17th Annual Northwest Native American Basketweavers Association Gathering, and for the Warm Springs community. Palmer is also a 2012 Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program awardee with Oregon Folklife Network.
