Peabody Museum visit

fishing net

basket by Elizabeth Hickox

how to start a basket

basketry tray

   Traveling to the Peabody Museum on Tuesday was a great experience for me in many ways. Not only I got to see local products that were made in South and Central America but I started thinking about the way people used to make functional objects. There is a reason why we still have similar looking things around us, it is because they work. They are long lasting as well as aesthetic. People in those times didn't sit and sketch like us, they didn't think about which product they are going to make would sell more. They did it with instinct and experience. They knew which material would be correct for their purpose and used what was available for them.
  Availability of material- This is one of the topics that got my attention the most after seeing these objects. How people are capable of finding solutions according to their individual situations. Like the 'backpack' that we saw in the museum. It reminded me of the time when I was in Ghana and we were trying to build a swing set for children with just bamboo,a saw and some string. There, I had realized that it is still possible to achieve the same conclusion (in a longer time perhaps) even though you don't have access to the same tools.
People in the past amaze me with their talent and their capabilities to do anything everyday. Going to the museum reminded me of this one more time, and the possibilities we have to produce anything we want anytime we want.