Weaving a Stair Basket.

 I had already pre-cut to size the stakes for the basket. The weavers I had to make the basket were gathered together. I hoped I had enough walnut and brown stained material to make the basket. In the tote are some of the pre-cut stakes in soak.

 Clothes pins are very useful tools when beginning to weave the sides of the base. One trick to figuring out the sizes of the stakes is to add 4 - 5 inches to the lengths for the ends that are tucked in on the border. The stair basket is 8" wide, sits 16" tall and has a 9" base step and a 9" wide second step that is 8" higher than the base. The base stakes measure 52", the step base stakes measure 36", and the long side stakes measure 62". The fillers for both bases I cut at 21".

 Since the long side stakes serve as bases for the two levels as well as vertical stakes for the front and back sides, the mid-point for the lower base was not the mid-point of the 62" length. I calculated that base mid-point as 26.5". As you will see towards the last of these photos, that calculation was correct since all the vertical stakes ended up as about the same height.

 The weaving method for the sides is called "start and stop" weaving. In this a weaver is placed, as above, in front of a vertical stake, behind the next, in front, behind and so on. The start is shown above.

 To complete the weaving of a horizontal weaver, the weaver is overlapped for several stakes, the "stop" part of the weaving.

 Once I had woven the base level to a height of around 9", I added the handle and began to weave the base for the step section. The handle I chose was an 8" wide "D" handle purchased from WHBaskets of Port Rowan, Ontario.

 Here you can see that the stakes are all around the same height.

 When the basket was close to 16" in height, I cut off the vertical weavers on the inside of the basket.

 I then trimmed the weavers that were on the outside of the basket and began to bend them over the last weaver, and tuck them behind a lower weaver.

 When I received my last order of cane from Wanda of WHBaskets, I found two or three of the above tools included free of charge. I have found them to be very useful in lifting  up the lower rows of weavers so I can then tuck in the ends of the vertical stakes. I used to use a steel flat screwdriver!

 The stakes are all tucked away and the basket is ready for the finishing touches.

 For this I use another tool from WHBaskets, a "Lash Buddy" shown above.

 The lashing is the finishing touch to the rim. A seagrass filler sits between an inside and outside row of cane. The "Lash Buddy" separates the cane weavers so that the lashing can be passed through the weaving,

 The clothes pins hold the cane rows and the seagrass in place while the lashing progresses.

 The finished stair basket sits on the stairs ready to be taken to my next sale.

The rib basket is finished!

Midway through this morning's session of weaving, the rim of the basket was completely finished as the weaving rows from each side met. In this photograph, the basket looks complete, but you can see that there is still weaving to be done where the basket sits in the table.




This picture shows the areas that still needed weaving even though the rim was completely finished.







Here the basket is finished, and as with all my rib baskets made from homegrown willow and grapevine ribs and hoops, it is somewhat eccentrically shaped.







The grapevine follows its own shape while the ribs, with their natural variation in size from tip to butt make for interesting shapes.

I will post this basket for sale on my etsy shop later tonight or tomorrow. Then I can add photos that do not reflect the still damp sections of the weaving.

The natural dye of the walnut is quite pleasing, I think.

Beginning to weave a rib basket

After the successful use of walnut liquor as a dye yesterday, I decided to start making a rib basket using the newly dyed flat cane. The fact that the weather is somewhat miserable with rain and thunder showers was a major influence in this decision too.

The first step was to collect the materials I would need. For the "hoops" of the basket I chose two grapevine hoops of approximately the same size and thickness.





I then selected around 30 brown willow stakes and cut sections to form the ribs of the basket. (Brown willow is willow with its bark on.) This willow is from last spring or even the spring before. It is dry and brittle and has to be soaked for at least 24 hours before I can bend it to use a ribs without fear that it will break. It is now soaking in the basement bathtub.



The next step was to join the two grapevine hoops with the flat cane by means of a God's Eye. One hoop was placed inside the other at right angles, and then the God's Eye was woven.






Here you can see the two hoops joined together with two God's Eyes. This frame is ready for tomorrow when I add the soked ribs and finish weaving the basket's body.