June "Snack and Weave" & Materials List

Don't forget June is a Snack and Weave
So bring a snack to share!
Remember when we have food,
the meeting always starts at 6:00 PM

Double Wall Nature Basket

by Sue & Darleen

Materials Needed
"*" Items needed for June 5th meeting

6” double slotted base (Judy ordered)1/2” flat for spokes, *
#2 round reed for twining *
1/4” flat for weavers, inside basket wall *
1/4” flat oval for weavers, outside basket wall
Various natural materials, canes and yarns for outside basket wall
Cane, needed for twining to hold natural materials in place
3/8” flat for weaver, top row*
1/2” flat oval for rim row
seagrass for filler
lash with cane, 11/64” flat oval, or waxed linen

To Prepare: cut 25 OR 27 spokes of 1/2" flat twelve (12) inches long. If using a different size base, just make sure to use an odd number of spokes.

INSIDE WALL: If you are good at evenly spacing spokes on a base, use the 25 SPOKE OPTION: Choose one side of the wooden base to be inside the basket and place INSIDE SIDE UP on the table. Start putting spokes in the TOP SLOT, ROUGH SIDE of REED DOWN. The smooth reed side will be UP forming the basket’s interior. Sue found this technique worked well.

27 SPOKE OPTION: Trace wooden base onto paper and cut out. Fold circle in half then in thirds, resulting in 6 equal sections. Mark the folded lines as 1 through 6. Choose one side of the wooden base to be inside the basket and set this side up on the table. Place the paper on top of the base and draw light pencil marking at lines 1, 3 and 5 ONLY, resulting in 3 equal sections. With ROUGH SIDE of REED DOWN put a spoke at each mark and 8 spokes evenly in-between each mark (total of 27). The smooth side of the reed is UP forming a smooth inside of your basket.

For both options: Twine three rows with #2 round with spokes flat on the table. Keep rows close to the base. Spray stakes well. Select a long piece of 1/4” flat. For about 15” taper one end of the reed to about 1/8” width. Place the narrow end in FRONT of a spoke, WITH THE ROUGH SIDE OUT. While holding the basket in your lap gently bend the spokes upward. OR, if you would like to make the basket a bit larger, work flat on the table for several more rows. In that case, the narrow end of the weaver will be started on the UNDERSIDE of a spoke with the ROUGH SIDE DOWN. Remember what you did as you will need to use the same method on the outer wall.

Work in a continuous weave until desired height is reached; about 8”. Keep packing tightly and straighten the stakes as you work. Taper reed as in beginning, trying to end where you began so basket height is even. Finish with a row of 3/8” flat stop/start weaving. To correct the problem of an odd number of spokes, at one point just go over TWO spokes. DO NOT CUT AND TUCK AT THIS TIME. Just leave it until outer wall is also done.

Outside WALL

Place 1/2” flat stakes ROUGH SIDE UP, ( when upset the rough side will face inside, touching the inner wall) in the bottom slot of the wood base. Each outside basket stake gets a matching inside stake. (I found this easiest to do by working upside down. I turned the basket upside down and placed the inner basket spokes in a small bowl, just to hold it. My hands were then free to put in the outer wall spokes. If you do this, the SMOOTH SIDE of the reed WILL BE UP.) Use the SAME METHOD of weaving to upset your spokes AS YOU DID IN THE INNER WALL. In General, Twine 2 rows with #2 round with spokes flat on the table. Keep rows close to the base. Spray stakes well and bend them up around the inside basket, clipping the stakes together with clothes pins at the top of the basket. Keep the stakes clipped for the next few rows if needed until you are sure they will stay matched up with the inside basket. Twine two or 3 more rows with the #2 round. With 1/4” flat oval weave several start stop rows.

Then proceed to make hills and valleys. TRY TO KEEP OUTER WALL SPOKES EVEN WITH INNER WALL SPOKES AS YOU WORK. To make a valley, go over 1, next row up- over 3, next row up- over 5 etc. To make a hill, go over odd number of spokes desired width, then decrease by two in next row, continue on until hill is desired height. Some materials must be woven stop/start. Others, like yarn and round reed. can be woven continuously. As you work you can basically do whatever you want, moving hills and valleys to the left or right. When several hills and valleys are made, do a row or two of twining to hold everything in place.

End with one row of 3/8” flat, make sure inside and outside baskets are the the same height. As with the inner wall, at some point go over two spokes to correct for the odd number of spokes.

Rim
The outside basket wall's inner stakes get cut off and the outer basket outer stakes get tucked down between the two walls. Inside basket stakes are cut and tucked as a normal basket.

Use seagrass as filler and lash as desired.
Tips:

* To get the rounded look on of my hills and valleys, take a longer weaver of the same material and curve it back to row one diagonally, covering the whole hill or valley.

* Work in one section at a time, don’t try to weave evenly around the whole basket.

* It looks nice when points of the hills and valleys touch each other.

* When weaving, try to keep the outer wall close to inner wall. I found this shaping hard when some of “my stuff” was thick and pushed the outer wall out. Clipping the corresponding inner and outer spokes together really helped.

* Using yarn really helps to get curved lines into the basket that can be then followed with reed. BUT, it is really easy to get too tight when using yarn and pull the spokes so they are no longer straight.

* It is a challenge to not end up with a basket that is “too busy”.

* Play with it, stand across the room and look at it. It is quick and easy to take something out and redo it again a different way.


Notes: