I’m not sure if this is the correct category really. But it is weaving and willow is fibrous
I did a four hour willow weaving course today and made this basket. I love how it turned out. I’m not a complete beginner, I did a two day course twenty years ago and made two baskets that I still use. And if there is such a thing as reincarnation, I was definitely a basket maker in a past life.
This is made entirely, and solely of willow withes. The browner ones had been dried and soaked, the green is fresh willow. It is quite tough on the old finger joints, but the end result is really study and cute!
Gah! It’s awesome!! I love it and I love how happy it makes you to create it. Does the greener part stay a different color from the body as it ages? That is a really nice look.
I actually don’t know. I’m guessing it will get brown as it ages, but it was grown in Ireland and the brown brown in three UK, so it perhaps is a different variety and might stay a different colour.
WOW! That turned out so wonderful, I have much envy for your day and also for your basket. And your fabric stash, my word.
I learned a little from a basket maker on Salt Spring Island many years ago when I went for a week-long mud building workshop, that whole time was so terrific. The last bit of my freedom in life, it was all childrearing after that. I never did make a whole entire basket, maybe this summer with some nettle fiber, destung of course!
I do! A friend has a yardfull, she saves me bags of the stuff to dry & spin. That’s a “one of these days” projects, lol.
AIMR
(Linda -In the year 2025, I am happy to be alive! :us:)
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In my last semester at college, I took basket weaving and other traditional weaving…I learned how to do caning and rushing as well as make pine needle baskets and willow baskets…it is tougher than it looks…I admire our ancestors for their skills and practicality!
My word, I so LOVE that basket! Sounds like a fun day, too. I commissioned someone to make a specific basket shape for me a year or two ago… If you enjoy this, I might have to make some sort of personal-swap or commission arrangement with you. Or get some lessons from you, maybe.
That’s a gorgeous basket! It’s all so even and straight! And such lovely proportions. I love the subtle contrast of the green! I hope it stays a different color than the rest, even if it doesn’t stay green!
This just made me think: can you make a label/tag/something for it like a maker’s mark with the year and your name on it so that as it moves through time your peeps know and remember its origins? I think that would be really cool to have a hundred years from now.
Unfortunately I don’t have the skills to either teach or make stuff for anyone, also as yet I don’t have any materials. But when we get the class notes, I’ll be happy to share them with you. X
Your basket looks great!