Cleaning out the basket willow.

 Today I began to clean out the basket willow I grew in the past to use as ribs in my rib baskets. The first step was to cut the six to eight foot "whips" that had grown on the willow stools since I last cut them down last year. I am retiring from basket-making, so will not be harvesting the willow again. The willow "stools", such as the one shown above remained after the whips were removed. Then, using a spade and an adze, I dug around each stool, and hacked away at the roots.

Three of the four remaining willow stools were removed in this laborious process. They await by the curb side to be picked up with other green materials on Thursday's pick up. The bundles of whips are also tied and ready for pick-up too.  I will remove the last of the stools tomorrow.

Propagating willow is very easy. From a selected shrub, cut off willow whips (branches). Cut pencil thick foot-long sections of the branches, bury them about half the length of the cutting by forcing them into the ground. Most of the cutting will self-root.  In the spring cut the shoots from the cuttings to just above ground level. More shoots will develop, and six to eight foot whips will grow by the end of fall. Cut them back again, and double the amount of shoots and whips will grow back. Repeat yearly and stools such as shown above will develop with a heavy crop of whips for annual harvesting.

If you harvest the whips in the fall, the bark will not be removable. You can use these as "brown" willow for your baskets. If you harvest the willow in the spring-time, after the first flush of leaves appear, you can then use the whips as "white" willow. At this time it is very easy to remove the bark to reveal the white flesh beneath.

If you do not harvest the willow on an annual basis, huge willow trees will develop very rapidly.

One further use for the willow is in propagating other plants. Place willow cuttings in a bucket of water along with other cuttings from shrubs you wish to cultivate. Willow will add natural rooting compounds  to the water in the bucket, and can stimulate root formation in the cuttings from these shrubs.

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.

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.

The Willow Man

My elder sister emailed me this copy of this article that appeared in "The Telegraph", an English newspaper last year. She visited "The Willow Man" herself last summer. She does not think I should try to emulate him and grow 40 foot high scultures of living willow in my suburban Ottawa garden!

The willow man grows his own willow in "withies" as well as growing willow to make living sculptures. At the entrance to his nursery is a wonderful sculpture of St. George slaying a dragon, and on the other side of the entranceway is a living sculpture of a stag. The article here states that sculpture is so lifelike that hinds (femal deer) nuzzle up to it in the rut season.

The article seems to suggest there is a craze in England for gardeners to grow their own willow arbours and to fashion living willow sculptures. Could this craze sweep through North America?

ADDENDUM: Anne just found this story on the net. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/943715.stm

The willow man in the BBC article was created by sculptress Serena de la Hey and is quite distinct from the sculptures created by the person in the Telegraph article.

Willows covered in ice

Our willow bushes are covered in ice and bent right over. Friends who lived in this area during the ice storm tell us this is nothing compared to that period. We are glad we did not live here and experience the long period of blackout then.






On our way to church this morning, we saw a litter of branches surrounding many trees. Our neighbours birch tree has had its top snapped off. It was dead and decaying.








On our way home after the church service, we could hear the musical sounds of ice dropping to the ground off the trees. It was a magical sound in this Christamas period.

My "new" studio

At last I was able to move all my baskets down to my basement studio and set them up there. They were piled up in the upstairs living room pretty well immediately after the July 24th flood. 99% of the renovation work is completed. A cupboard still needs to be installed to box in the water meter and clean outs in my storage room. But that's about it.




As you can see from the photographs, the basement is newly painted in three shades of yellow. It is bright and sparkling. My baskets make a colourful display and I can now find a particular item easily. Any new sales from my Etsy shop will entail a short search rather than a long one.

Visitors to the studio are welcome. I could even teach students in this warm and inviting area.

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.

A new rib basket

I added this new rib basket to my Etsy store today. It is made from homegrown grapevine and willow and imported rattan cane. The grapevine is twisted together to make two hoops. These are then joined with woven God's eyes to form the structure of the basket. For this basket I used undyed rattan cane to weave the God's eyes.

For the ribs I used "white" willow harvested last spring from my garden. White willow is willow whips with their bark stripped off. This is best accomplished after the first flush of leaves appears.

The weaving on the body features rattan cane dyed blue. This was dyed on my BBQ so that when the dye splashed I did not have to do any clean-up.

Preparing for the West Carleton Art Society's Exhibition and Sale.

On a rainy Fall day when the leaves were at their best, I met with Lis Allison of the West Carleton Arts Society at the Nepean Sportsplex to pick up "grids" for this weeeks Exhibition and Sale at the Carp Agricultural Hall.






It did not take long to load over 50 of the grids in the back of Lis's pick-up. What took a little longer was gaining access to the loading area as huge transport trucks had the advantage and priority over a small truck.





We took and the grids to Carp and off loaded them. We returned for another 50 or so. After loading these the way out was blocked by more trucks. The loading area we used was under the three windows shown behind the backed-up truck.





Later I set up my basket display in the hall. Sales are tonight, tomorrow and Sunday.







Other artists also were in process of setting up too. I hope to have a successful weekend.

Market Basket

I added another Market Basket to my Etsy shop today. It will also accompany me to the Carp Fairgrounds on the Thanksgiving weekend (Canadian) and to the Glebe on Halloween weekend. There I will be taking part in exhibitions and shows.






The Carp show is hosted by the West Carleton Arts Society and features the work of artists and artisans from the western suburbs and the countryside to the west of Ottawa. On Saturday the 10th the Exhibition coincides with the Carp Farmers Market and opens from 8 00 am to 4 oo pm.




The Ottawa Valley Weavers and Spinners Guild 60th Anniversary Exhibition and Show will feature a variety of spinners, weavers and makers of hand-made textile goods. Its title. "More than just cloth" does not really do justice to the quality and range of items for sale their. High end goodies!

August Sales take off.

I opened my Etsy Shop on March 2nd. By July 31st I had made 12 sales, most of which were vintage items. I made very few sales of my baskets.

Then came August where I made nine (9) sales, seven of which were actual baskets.

The photos here show the result of the learnings I made with these August sales. They show the vintage cat basket I refurbished being readied to ship to a purchaser from California. It cost almost $80.00 Can to ship this, even though it weighed less than three (3) kg.

At the beginning of August, I had raised my prices a little and offered "free shipping" in Canada and the US. The early August sales showed me this was not a smart business move. Shipping costs came very close to equalling the total $US I received from these sales. After shipping them, I spent a half day revising my prices by adding in shipping costs to Canada and the US in $5.00 increments. Lower priced items had a shipping cost of $5.00. As prices increased, I increased shipping costs to $10.00, $15.00 and $20.00.

On August 21st, an article I wrote was published in the Etsy Storque magazine. Over that weekend I received five more orders, including that for the cat basket. The $20.00 US shipping cost I estimated proved to be way too low, as did other shipping cost estimates. I filled the orders and then spent that Monday morning revising both prices and shipping costs. Prices were increased for almost all items, and so were shipping costs. I tried to ensure that the ratio between price and shipping cost was 3 to 0ne at worst and 4 or 5 to one at best.

I then took part in the Capital Crafters Back to School for the last week of August. There I offered a refund of 15% of the selling price for purchases made in that week. I sold two baskets during that sale to one customer. The two items fitted nicely into one parcel. And its shipping costs matched the costs I had estimated for the larger item. So I was able to refund the buyer her 15% as well as the shipping fee on the second item. That was a good way to end the month.

I hope this last sale in indicative of better sales in the future.

Statistics and ready for the mail

In an average month, my Etsy shop receives "visits" from around 1000 people. This is according to Google Analytics. Yesterday, after the publication of the Storque article, my shop received 553 visitors. And this was from 1 00 pm to midnight!

64 visitors to Storque left very favourable comments on the article too, while another 45 or so "hearted" my shop (i.e. declared it to be a favourite of theirs.) And, I received four new orders for baskets.

Earlier in this month I sold two baskets and found out exactly how much it costs to mail them to customers. Up to that time I had raised my prices a little and offered "Free Shipping" in Canada and the US. This was fine for vintage coins and trays I could pack flat. However, it was not fine for bulky baskets. A rib basket, measuring around 15" in all directions cost over $25.00 to mail. So last week I spent a full morning adding shipping costs to my store to recoup at least some of these mailing costs in future sales. I added notional amounts for shipping of $5, $10, $15 and $20 depending on the size and value of the basket or other items.

The vintage cat basket above was one of the baskets sold following the publication of the Storque article. It was listed with that nominal shipping cost of $20.00. The buyer is from California and I estimate the 24"by18"by18" mailing box shipping cost will be around $60.00. It will still bring in more revenue than costs, but another revision of prices is in the works.

Check out "Storque" at Etsy

Today, at 1 00 pm Eastern Time, the Storque online magazine of Etsy published an article I wrote about the challenges of retirement. You can view this report by going to my Etsy shop (click on one of my images adjacent to this blog). From there click on "Community" and then "The Storque."

Read and enjoy.

The complete book of Basketry Techniques

The complete book of Basketry Techniques is another book I would recommend to serious basket makers. As you can see from the page devoted to the weave called the Three-rod Wale, the instructions are very clear and understandable.

Chapters are as follows:

1. Materials

2. Workshop, tools and equipment

3. Structures

4. Basics and special techniques

5. Bases and staking up

6. Weaves

7. Borders

8. Handles

9. Lids, fastenings and fittings

10. Programme of work

11. Designing

It is a complete book. Its "Programme of Work" chapter has patterns for twenty-two baskets of increasing complexity. Anyone who masters all twenty-two baskets in this programme can properly be called an expert. I have mastererd perhaps half of them.

The Complete Book of Basketry Techniques is written by Sue Gabriel and Sally Goymer, published by David and Charles, with the paper back edition dated as 1999, and running to 176 pages. It is a worthwhile addition to your basketry library.

500 Baskets: A book to inspire.

When I need inspiration in my basket-making, I turn to "500 Baskets: a celebration of the basket makers art", Edited by Susan Mowery Kieffer, published by Lark Books of New York in 2006. the works there are awesome and awe inspiring.

Three examples are shown here. Brian Jewett's basket is made from garden hose, cable ties and valve handles. "Both the cactus form and the garden hose are strong water symbols, speaking to both conservation and consumption."

The work of Joan. E. Scantz, made from peeled and unpeeled willow, is much more traditional in style, but is a particularly striking example of how traditional styles can be so modern too.

Leslee Ann Burtt's work uses the traditional materials of seagrass, reed and cedar bark and couples them with a mule-deer antler in a striking and evocative manner.

These are just three examples of the works in this wonderful book. My work can only be a pale shadow compared to such expertise, design, and creativity.

The book that started it all.

(This is the first in a intermittant series of articles on basket-making books.)

There is a story I have told many times of how I began my basket-making journey. It begins over a half-century ago in arts and crafts classes in an elementary school in the little English village of Cheddleton (near Leek, Staffordshire). There, at the age of nine or ten, the class was introduced to basket-making. My twin brother, Frank, and I, as competative as ever tried to outdo each other in making the biggest and best basket. Soon the school's supply of basket-making materials was threatened with exhaustion. My elder sister, Mary, was the recipient of a large sewing basket (which she has no recollection of receiving!)

Many years later, I recalled this episode of basket-making in conversation with my wife, Anne, as we talked about what we could do after I retired. "Perhaps I should do more than golf and garden?" That Christmas the book shown here appeared as a Christmas gift under the tree. That is the book that rekindled my interest in basket-making and put me on the present path of being a basket-maker.

The book, Basket Making, by Olivia Elton Barratt, was published in 1990 by Charles Letts and Co. Ltd , London, England. It is a broad introduction to a variety of basket-making styles: cane basket making, willow basket making, straw boater making etc. It is filled with examples of the basket maker's craft and is a good book for inspiration.