It's time to strip the willow again.

 Stripping willow is easy at this time of year. The willows have their first flush of leaves. That is the signal that the bark can be easily removed to reveal the white flesh beneath. Here, one willow whip is shown with part of its bark removed.

 Surrounded by tulips and daffodils, the stool of a willow is all that remains after I cut down the willow branches that sprouted from it. Next spring, this stool will once again be a mass of willow whips perhaps eight or nine feet tall.

 Two remaining willow shrubs show that first flush of leaves. These will be cut down to form a stool as in the previous photo. The leaves are then removed by sliding my hand down the whip.

 This willow was not cut down annually. Without that annual cutting, the willows grow very quickly. This willow is somewhere between five and ten years old.

 On the left is the stripped willow. On the right are whips ready to be stripped. Longer pieces of the stripped bark, in the container in the centre, will become weavers for rib baskets. The remainder will be added to my compost.

The dead and unusable willow is at the curb waiting to be picked up by the City as green waste.

Waiting for the willow to leaf out

A week ago, I cut three willow branches and brought them into the house and placed them in water. As you can see, leaves are now appearing. In a few days, when the leaves are fully out, these willow whips will be ready for stripping. Outside, this process is much slower. I am somewhat impatient as I want to begin stripping the willow to produce the beautiful while willow whips I use in making rib basket ribs. I have the grapevine hoops ready from last Fall's crop as well as flat rattan cane and seagrass ready as weavers. It will be a couple of weeks or more before I can begin. Come on, spring.

Grapevine bark: too much effort for too little return.

Today I finished stripping the bark off the remaining grapevine branches I had in soak. While I filled a large container with the bark, in reality very little of it was usable for weaving. Over 90% of the strips I removed were too short to use. There were only enough longer lengths to weave the body of a rib basket made from 8" diameter oak hoops. So the total output from days of labour was enough for a very small basket of  5" oak hoops and a slightly larger one at 8".

I will revisit this idea of using bark in the spring when I prepare the white willow by stripping it of its bark. Perhaps I will find that the percentage of useful weaving strips will be larger.

I did coat the two baskets with varnish today. My memory says that the Vancouver basket of willow weavers was similarly varnished. The two baskets are now drying. Hopefully they will be dry tomorrow when I head for the Exhibition and Sale of the Ottawa Valley Weavers and Spinners Guild.
That sale is at the Glebe Community Centre in Ottawa, from 4 00 to 8 00 pm on Friday, 10 00 am to 5 00 pm on Saturday, and from 10 00 am to 4 00 pm on Sunday.

Using seagrass to make a rib basket

 My regular rib baskets make use of flat cane for the God's eyes and weavers. Today's inspiration (?) is to use seagrass instead. I will use grapevine hoops as in the example above and white willow for the ribs.

 To make a rib basket I choose two hoops of grapevine similar to these. Unlike these, I choose two of a similar size.

 I then place one hoop inside the other and at right angles to it. I then join the two hoops with God's eye weavings. This gives me space behind which to insert the ribs.

The ribs I will use are currently in soak. They are of "white willow", that is willow that had its bark removed when I cut them down in the spring after the first flush of leaves appeared. I will be able to continue this project on Monday when I have free time for weaving once more.

Beginning to weave a rib basket

Since the weather lately has not been conducive to sitting outside and stripping the loose bark from the cut grapevine vines, I chose two of the grapevine hoops I had to serve as the frame of a new rib basket. These hoops were approximately the same size in circumference, a similar colour, and similar in thickness. One hoop was placed inside the other at a 90 degree angle. The two hoops were then joined together by weaving "Gods Eyes" where the hoops intersected.

The Gods Eyes provided an anchoring place into which to insert the white willow ribs. (White willow is willow harvested in the spring after the first flush of leaves occurs. At that time it is easy the strip the bark from the willow whips and reveal the white flesh beneath.) I placed five ribs in each of the two segments of the base. These were then secured into place by continuing weaving with the rattan cane from the Gods Eyes.


For the Gods Eyes and the initial weaving of the basket I am using 1/4" rattan cane dyed with homemade natural walnut dye. Later I will use wider rattan cane and add more ribs to the basket. I will decide on the colour of this wider cane when I reach that stage.

Re-organising my storage room.

The old saying, "You cannot see the wood for the trees" applied to my cane and willow storage area. Masses of tangled cane sat on top of, inside and under the storage bins I had for them. I could not see what was there and what was usable. Now I have salvaged all I could and hung them in skeins that are not only visible but easily reached and brought down.



The remains of the unsalvageable mass sits at the roadside awaiting pick up for the City to compost.







The rolls of ready-for-use cane are easily accessible and ready for dying as I use up the remnants.







And the brown and white willow are also easily accessible for use in my rib baskets. Overall, yesterday was a successful day of re-organisation.

Preparing "brown" willow.

As Fall approaches, I am beginning to work on the willow at the front of my side garden. Two years ago, I cut these willow shrubs to just above ground level. Anne wanted them to form a hedge or barrier for privacy, so I did not cut them down to ground level again this spring. Instead, I let them grow. Lately, I have begun to harvest from this two-year growth. As you can see, I cut the willow down to waist level from its 8 -12 foot height. the willow on the left is as yet uncut and shows its two-year height.

Here are the remains of the cut willow that proved to be unusable for my basket-making. Most of these branches were too short or had too many branches off the main stem to be useful. I need long and straight "whips" for my basket ribs. I bundled up these waste products and put them at the curb for the green box compost recycling.



For the usable willow whips, I stripped each of its leaves. The green bin was a helpful collection container for these.







The end product after an hour or more of work: "brown" willow. These are now in my storage room where they will dry over the next weeks and months and lose their green colour. I will soak them in water before I can use them in my rib baskets.

The term "brown" willow refers to any willow, whatever its colour, that is harvested and used with its bark still on. "White" willow is willow harvested in the spring, stripped of its bark to reveal its white flesh beneath. "Buff" willow is willow boiled for 8 - 10 hours with its bark on. Its bark is then removed to reveal a beautiful buff colour .

Rib baskets added to replace sold items

After going through a dry spell with no sales through my Etsy shop for a few weeks, today I mailed several rib baskets to a buyer in New York state.

The baskets here are rib baskets I had on hand that I have now added to my Etsy shop as replacements. The one shown here is made completely from rattan cane dyed with home-made walnut dye.



This one features grapevine handles and white willow ribs.









And this one features brown willow both in the hoops and the ribs.

Harvesting the willow versus privacy

Here is the result of harvesting the willow this spring season, while safeguarding Anne's desire to use the willow bushes/trees as a privacy fence too. The trash can contains white willow, willow whips stripped of their bark to reveal the white flesh beneath. The greenish tinge here will fade to a soft white as these whips dry.




The willow tree in the fore of this photo is perhaps three years old. It has been allowed to grow without being trimmed to ground level for three years. It does form a significant privacy barrier.






This is the same species of willow with its beautiful yellow bark and its leaves in tight clusters. Selected whips from this bush were cut for white willow. To ready it for stripping, I removed the leaves and then removed the bark. This is easy to do at his stage of growth with that first full flush of leaves being present.




This is another species of willow that grows slender enough whips for me to use as ribs for my rib baskets. I need at least a two foot section of slender willow to use as ribs.






In a few sections of the garden, I was able to cut the willow bushes down to near ground level. From this stool many slender whips will grow ready for next year's harvest.







This is the same species of willow as in the previous photo. It is another privacy barrier so we can sit on our patio without all passers by seeing us. A large number of these whips could have been cut and used for white willow ribs, but this would have opened up the view too much for Anne. Next year these whips will have thickened to much for me to use, and will have too many branches too.

At last: progress on the rib basket

The white willow ribs soaked for about four days before being wrapped in a damp towel and allowed to "mellow" overnight. They proved to be supple enough to bend and put in place behind the God's Eyes without breaking.





I took the remaining tail of the God's Eye weaving and wove it around the initial ribs I had in place. At this stage I usually place five ribs in each segment of the basket frame, alternating butt ends and tip ends. After weaving several rows of the 1/4" flat cane I judged it was now time to add more ribs.




I added a second rib beside each of the five ribs in each segment. I also added a rib at both grapevine rims and on either side of the hoop that formed the intersection of the two woven segments. Weaving then went around these twenty-four ribs, the hoop and the rims.













As you can see this weaving process nicely separates the ribs. The placing of the initial ribs, the weaving, the adding of more ribs and more weaving took around two hours of work. The 1/4" flat reed makes a very nice, solid and compact basket, but it does take a long time to see any major progress.

Maybe I will finish this basket tomorrow!

More setbacks to making a rib basket

After soaking the brown willow another 24 hours, I tried once more to bend it to form the ribs of the rib basket I am making. Once more the willow broke. It seems that it has become too brittle after a year or two in storage.

The trashcan full of brown willow is now outside in readiness for next week's pick-up of garden trash.

I now have some white willow (willow with its bark removed) in soak. I have had better success with using white willow as ribs in the past since it tends to bend without breaking. The reason I chose brown willow for this rib basket was because of the contrast between its colour and the colour of the walnut dyed flat cane. The contrast with the white willow will now suffice.

If all else fails, I will be cutting and stripping more white willow next week. It looks as if it is ready to strip since the first flush of leaves has come.

A Tale of Two Baskets

Over the last two or three days I have worked on adding two rib baskets to my Etsy shop. The photographs here compare and contrast those two baskets.








This basket uses hoops made from homegrown grapvine to form its structure. The grapevine is not uniform in thickness and it is far from straight along its length. For the ribs I used homegrown willow. Again this is far from uniform in thickness. Rods vary in thickness from tip to butt and well as from rod to rod. The end result, even when woven with uniform flat cane, is a basket that forms its own shape even when manipulated to the best of my ability.



This basket, on the other hand, is woven completely from round and flat rattan cane. Though this cane is a natural product, it has been processed so that the cane is uniform in shape and thickness throughout its length. Thick round cane was used to form the hoops and thinner round cane for the ribs. It is this uniformity that enabled me to weave a less eccentrically shaped basket.

Some buyers like more eccentricity while others like less.



It would not be a basket of mine,however, if it were to be completly uniform in shape. I always have some room for variability.

At the Ottawa Valley Weavers and Spinners Guild 60th Anniversary Exhibition and Sale

My booth at the Exhibition and Sale had three tables, so I was able to arrange my baskets in categories rather than massing them all in a disarray.







The rib baskets, with the sign, were all placed together. This made for better organisation.







Similarly, I was able to cluster all the trays, tray kits and trivets on the one table.







My seven sewing baskets could all be placed together, with a sign describing the upcoming classes to make such baskets.








There was even space to set up my line of Greeting Cards.







And the coffee cup sleeves has a place to themselves.

Steps in making a rib basket

In a rib basket with willow ribs, it is essential to soak the willow before you begin. White willow, that is willow with its bark removed, needs perhaps an hour of soaking to make it supple. If I had used brown willow (willow with its bark still on) it would need to be soaked for 24 hours at least.



While the willow was soaking, I prepared the other materials. Two grapevine hoops of roughly equal size were found, and, in this case, pink rattan cane soaked in water to ready it for weaving.







With a long piece of flat rattan cane, I wove one God's eye to join the two grapvine hoops together. With a second long piece of cane I then wove the second God's eye. I then selected which segmant would be the handle to the basket, ensuring the horizontal hoop would be inside the handle hoop. This aids in developing the strength of the basket since that inside hoop is tightly held.


The next step is to place the initial sets of ribs in place held by the God's eyes. I usually place five ribs on each side of the basket at this stage.







After weaving several rows to fix these ribs in place, I added many more ribs. The basket-makers crede is, "The more ribs the better." For this basket I twinned the initial five ribs on each side and added two more to each sement too.





For these additional ribs, I decided to weave with natural, undyed cane. The end result is quite satisfactory.


Since I used 3/8" and 1/2" cane for this basket the weaving went much faster than in the case of yesterday's basket where I used 1/4" cane.