Summary

This handbag form was developed from the mission influenced 'sister' baskets that have matching identical sides of circular coiled mat forms. However in this style a central oval 'mat' has been added to separate the sides and form the handbag. It has long rigid handles that allow the basket to be carried over the shoulder.

Local Name

baladjdji mile belbmerrin

Physical Description

Handbag, coiled, with dyed pandanus (purple, brown, yellow, white) made by stitching two identical circular sides to a coiled oval section from which two long handles emanate on either side.

Significance

Marilyn Gumurdul's signature style includes the two sided pandanus handbags. She makes round ones and unsual oval shaped ones with close coiling, but also ones with intricate open sides. Other pandanus bags that she makes combine lace-like coiling or knotting with a close-coiled top, and single-coil handles extending from the lower coils in the basket are another signature of her coiled baskets. Marilyn is recognised as a very accomplished fibre artist, and her work was profiled in the exhibition, Woven Forms: Contemporary Basket Making in Australia that opened at Object Gallery in Sydney in September 2005 and then toured nationally. It has also featured in the publication '500 Baskets: Celebration of the Basketmakers Art' (2006).

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