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Making Baskets - It's Easy and Creative
by Cassael Cetino
http://www.aplusbaskets.com
Basket making has proved to be therapeutic and therapy for
stress relief. Baskets are useful and decorative. People
love to have baskets at home because they are handy to store
things like fruit and magazines, they make beautiful gift
hampers, and they add beauty to the decor. Besides, you can
let your creativity take wings and create baskets of
different shapes and sizes.
A variety of material can be used to make baskets as long as
the materials are flexible. Most craft stores offer a supply
of machine made reeds and splints. You can make baskets with
cattail leaves or stalks, corn husks, honeysuckle vines,
pine needles, and daffodil leaves. You can gather them and
hang them to dry. Before using any of these materials, you
will need to soak them in lukewarm water for five minutes.
Then, wrap them in a damp towel as you are working so they
don't dry out or over soak.
Vines, for instance can be used. You will need about ten 3'
long pieces and around fifteen 4' long pieces of vine. You
should choose the thickest pieces to make the frame. The
first step of basket making is to form a square by laying
three 3' spokes on top of 3 bottom spokes. Then, take a
piece of the long thin vine, called a weaver, and fold it
in such a manner that one end is shorter than the other, so
that you can loop it over top spokes and then weave it over
and under bottom spokes.
Weave the material over three spokes, under the next three,
over the next three, and so on. You have to do this at least
three times before you can begin weaving it through the
spokes individually. Gradually, you will go on adding more
spokes by inserting each one along the side of a spoke in
between a previous weave. Interestingly, as you add and
weave, you will start having more space between the spokes.
At this point you can cut new spokes and insert them to fill
these spaces and start weaving them into a pattern.
It is important to dampen the spokes until they are
flexible enough to be turned upward after you've made the
bottom 6" wide. Then continue weaving upwards as you make
your sides.
Now finish off the top edge of the basket. For this you need
to bend the spokes over and weave them amongst themselves
one at a time. For example, take one spoke, bend it to the
right and weave it over the one next to it, then under the
next one, then over the next, and continue in the same
manner. When that spoke has woven itself as far as it can,
do this with the next one, and then continue until they have
all been secured down. Snip any untidy ends that are
sticking out.
Basket making is an art. The basic technique of basket
making has been passed on from generation to generation. It
reveals a marvelous process of hard work, beauty, and
culture.
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