Corey Alston’s hands are never idle. As a sweetgrass basket weaver in Charleston’s historic City Market, his fingers are constantly moving across his newest creation. Now, years of work at his craft have paid off in the form of “Big Percy,” the largest sweetgrass basket in the world according to Guinness World Records.
Measuring five feet tall, six feet wide, eleven feet around, and eighty pounds in weight, Alston’s basket resides in Columbia’s South Carolina State Museum, which commissioned the work. “It’s all for the culture,” Alston says of the accomplishment. “Now the world knows about the Gullah community.”
Alston’s involvement with the family business of basket weaving began in 2005, when his wife’s grandmother, Mary Jane Manigault, taught him the traditional Gullah Geechee art form. At the time, he was working for Shell Oil, and was considering moving away to take a promotion. Once the joy of sweetgrass weaving took hold, however, “the history of Corey Alston began,” he says.
That history culminated in a full year of fourteen-hour days—and several moments of doubt—dedicated to what he considers his masterpiece. Big Percy started as a simple knot, and though Alston wasn’t sure where the design would end up, he let the “vibes” flow through his hands. The result was not just hefty but intricate both outside and in: “Nothing was conventional, nothing was traditional. I don’t think anyone has ever done this type of design before,” he says. “I even told my wife, ‘I’m afraid I bit off more than I can chew.’”
Big Percy isn’t the first Alston creation to appear in a museum. The Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, native has had his art featured in D.C.’s Smithsonian American Art Museum, Charlotte’s Mint Museum, and Charleston’s International African American Museum, among others. Now, with the Guinness recognition behind him, he plans to focus on producing smaller baskets to sell at the market.
“Humility is really the key,” he says, highlighting the values imbued in him by his community and by the women who taught him the age-old art form. “I’m going to keep the craft alive and keep on pushing.”
Charlie Hastings, a 2026 intern at Garden & Gun, hails from Charleston, South Carolina, and graduated from Trinity College Dublin, where he studied English and Italian and was editor-in-chief of The University Times.