168 COILED BASKETRY IN BRITISH COLUMBIA (ETH. ANN. 41 
kind of coiling or the shape attained. These are the watch spring 
(pl. 3, a), elongated watch spring (pl. 3, 6), and parallel coiled 
(pl. 3, ¢), as well as several others employed for fancy shapes, such 
as triangular and heart-shaped coiled bottoms. Slat bottoms are 
always composed of parallel slats of wood, but there are many 
different ways of fastening these together and to the walls of the 
basket. These methods will be treated in detail when the slat 
bottoms are described. 
Irrespective of the shape of basket to which it may be applied, 
the watch-spring coil is always started in the same way. A simple 
knot is tightly tied at one end of a bunch of coil splints, after the 
ends have been made even (fig. 3, a, 6). The knot is tied by using 
the fingers and thumbs of both hands. The short ends of the splints 
which project beyond the knot are then cut off close with a knife or 
scissors (fig. 3, ¢.) The knot is then held by the first two fingers 
and thumb of the left hand, while with the right the sharp point of 
a sewing splint is passed through its center away from the person 
holding it (d/). If the splint does not penetrate easily, the awl is 
\ e 
Fic. 3.—Beginning of coiling 
used for enlarging the hole. The splint is then pulled through with 
the right hand until the rear end has almost disappeared, when it is 
brought back up over the knot toward the worker, and passed 
through again to the right of the first stitch, and the loop thus made 
around the bundle of splints is pulled tight (fig. 3, e). This process 
of sewing is exactly like overcasting, except that the sewing material 
is carried over the work toward the person and passed through it 
away from her, rather than vice versa. The knot is thus completely 
wrapped by the sewing-splint. When the protruding long end of the 
bundle of splints is reached, it is bent sharply down around 
the knot to the left by all right-handed persons, as shown in f, or 
to the right by left-handed workers, and stitched to the center knot 
by the same process of overcasting, the awl now being used to make 
holes for the stitches near the outer side of the covered knot; 
and thus the sewing is continued, the coil going around and around 
until the bottom is finished (g). Since this is flat, the awl perforates 
the coil at right angles to the plane in which the bottom is held. 
Usually it is held vertically, and worked from what is intended to 
be the outside, which is toward the maker. As the work advances 
