Nipmucs traditionally prepared their paints from plants. Poke berry made a blue color, cranberries for red, wild indigo for brown, walnut bark for yellow, and green was made using both walnut bark and wild indigo. By the 1800's commercial colors, like laundry bluing and artists pigments sometimes replaced traditional paints of a similar color. Nipmuc Designs Nipmucs assigned meaning to the symbols on their baskets. Shapes like domes, dots, triangles, leaves, curls and bars were beautifully arranged into designs we call medallions, strawberries, trails, stockades and vases.
Medallions are four domes or other shapes placed around an open central space.
Nipmucs and other Natives had unique ways that they made their medallions. To many, these medallions represent groups of people, or family strength. Domes , are made with a simple curved line possibly representing a wigwam. Domes are often used in medallion designs the way wigwams are grouped in a village. Dots, circles used by themselves or in lines, probably represent individual people, plants, animals or spiritual forces.