Anyone want to show off your winnowing basket/tray?

I want to make a winnowing basket. But I don't know which of the many basket shapes to make. How large is appropriate? How big is too damned big? I am also currently debating what to make it out of. Right now the leading mediums are pine needles or yellow flag iris leaves. Both are free to me. No. I have never woven a basket before.



I need to be able to use it for dry beans, amaranth, and sorghum, and rye. Hmmm. Amaranth might get stuck in  a pine needle coil basket... Would I need more than one type of  basket?

What say you?

I found the design of Japanese bamboo winnowing basket very practical. It has a small opening on one end to pour the grains out. The link is from L Johnson's PEX list here
pictures

I guess the surface needs to be smooth and tightly woven and the size would depend on how many stuff you need to winnow. I am thinking about making a mini one for cleaning flower/ veggie seeds.

Yes! Great thread & response! I think the area/size would be limited by what you can hold onto, and the purpose. Now, with that thought, I'm wondering about using one for fibers, as well as seeds & grains.

I love that one May! Thanks for remembering L Johnson's post. I will definitely keep it on my to do list. Do you think it could be made similar to a rib basket? Of course, it would have  to be drastically modified though. I know where some rivercane lives. Harvest would be easy. Splitting the cane wold be rather labor intensive. I shall wait on that for bit.

Here's another one, much simpler that I think would work well with iris leaves and two rings made of bark or split bamboo.

Lots of the trays I have seen are simply flat sheet molded by shaping over a round surface, unlike a basket that has a base and sides. Also twill weave is used instead of plain weave for smoothness. Some may have intricate woven patterns using colored strips.

Here they are super common (many people grow coffee and beans at home) but are often not woven- they're made of screen, screen fabric, or hardware cloth on embroidery-hoop type things (hoops are nailed or stapled together). I've got 3 large ones (at least a yard across) of varying filter sizes, and I've also seen ones made of fabric in hoops (even one of fabric on a bike rim or a hula hoop, held on with clothespins).

Full disclosure, this is about what my current winnow basket looks like.