Some assemblages consist of mementos from Sewell’s past, which in combination form powerful tree charms. Concerning one of them, she says, “I hung that up in that tree for good luck. That wire basket was a lampshade. All the good stuff done come out from around it. The piece of cloth that hang down was a little duck I bought from a white lady and put lace on it. It’s like Snow White to me, like a piece of wedding dress all tore up and rotted now. That gourd was give to me by a heavy-built white man, insurance man, name of Lewis Levitt, stay in Selma. Piece of iron came off a plow what our old mule pull. You hook up the plow, then hook up the mule by a chain. I picked it up, it was like back in time when folks had mules and plowed with them. You see the old mule shoe and a piece of old Chinese fan: all is stuff you need.”
