Swirling Star Basket

Basketmakers have endless possiblities when designing a basket.  Basket shapes,  reed colors and weaving patterns can be mixed and matched to create unique baskets reflecting personal preferences and  creative ideas.

This week I started a basket  base by weaving four different colors in a star pattern.  Once the base was appoximately four inches square I started to pull up the sides. I wove the basket in a cat-head style shape. To produce a swirling effect around the basket I wove the sides with an over two and under three twill pattern . 

The basket was finished with a inner and outter rim lashed with cane.

Pine Needle Baskets

Basket makers have traditionally made baskets using whatever material they had available.
In areas with many pine trees,  pine needles can be gathered and used to form coil baskets.

Like other basketry materials, the pine needles need to be soaked to become pliable before bending them into a circle to form the base of the basket.   Raffia, cane, and linen thread can be used to join one row of pine needles to the next.  



I chose to use thin cane to stitch the rings of the coil together. A pattern develops as the basket rings increase the size of the base.  Once the base is the desired size, the coils are places on top of the previous row to create the sides of the basket.

. Once the basket is the desired height and shape, the coils are gradually reduced to end the basket.