willow basketry anyone?

Here is a good source of plants, any others?  
Willlow - sx-61 Fast Growing Crafts/Biomass/Fencing/Poles https://jiovi.com/collections/earthcare-plants/products/willlow-sx-61-fast-growing

I got mine from here:
Vermont Willow Nursery

Salix triandra ‘Black Maul’
Salix viminalis 'Bowhayes Strain A'
Salix ‘Winter Green’
Salix purpurea ‘Packing Twine’
Salix koriyanagi ‘Rubykins’  

The first three for fences and the last two for baskets.
5 of each stuck in the ground in April 2017. A couple of them didn't make it, fingers crossed for the rest.
I'm eager for spring to see how they will do. I want this so bad it hurts!

This is a photo of my tools , I made the ruler, and the cheap pliers are really help , I bought a bodkin that's the sharp dangerous looking big spike , I use that a lot it's nice and big and tapered as you can see, I tried to draw a picture of an old gate hinge that has been sharpened to a point, I have seen one like it and think it was made for basketry, a homemade bodkin, the tools don't cost much ,the small wooden thing shaped like a small nerf has 3 small fins on it for splitting willow rods

I got my tools for basketry from p.h.coate and son , in Taunton Somerset they are online and grow a lot of willows and make baskets and have a visitor center,  we went there a few years ago it was interesting , they also sell charcoal world they make, and they are friendly nice people,

I got my tools for basketry from p.h.coate and son , in Taunton Somerset they are online and grow a lot of willows and make baskets and have a visitor center,  we went there a few years ago it was interesting , they also sell charcoal they make, and they are friendly nice people,that's the sharpening stone I use to sharpen my knife pictured under my knife

Thanks for encouragement Devin !

Thanks for photo of tool set Barbara!

Wondering what the flat iron with ring on is ? The splitter is a useful item, JW will like to see that.

I had a rewarding trip to the willow patch I have been keeping an eye on.  I picked all I could carry in about 20 minutes. Its on city land ( Saint John)  where they cut it off and on anyway. Very nice green stems , about 6-7 feet long. Tons more available in that area. I only harvested the thinnest ones, about 1/4" at base.

Feeling pretty good having got out on a mild day like today and harvesting a big bundle of good quality stems , I was also able to locate more spots where the old willows had been cut producing the sought after "rods".

My photos of the willow patch were too blurry to upload. Sorry folks. Will have to get a new camera looks like.

I gotta try the new stems right now !

Cheers !

Hi Francis !

I see you live north of me ( I'm near Saint John) , nice varieties you have planted.

Do you have any native willow in your area. If you read my post , there is some here.

Good luck, hope the ice was nice to your cuttings !

Thanks for the tool connection, Barbara!
Mark, the metal thing with the ring is a rapping iron, for banging down weavers or straightening rods.
After trying to work with some of these varieties growing around here, I am really looking forward to getting some actual basket varieties. The best so far has been the running coyote willow, so will coppice more of that for next season. According to the text on the Vermont Willow site, there is an eastern version of this too.
 After a bunch of failed starts, I finally powered through my atrocious craft and got something that could technically be called a basket. Starting to get the idea of what is needed....also managed to split a rod in half all the way to the end for the first time! The cleaves split into thirds, but until I can afford those gorgeous tools I can practice self control and slowing down enough to get a result.
 

more for amusement than edification....

Forgot to say, some of the weavers are weeping birch, fun to work with but figuring it will be brittle once it dries.

This is my willow patch , the chickens kept it nice, I'll put the fences up again later on, after I have cut the willows off

4 hens in this fowl house ,3 eggs this morning

3 hens in here, a better photo of the fowl house, 1 egg this morning, I can move the fowl house , I catch the hens easily by isolating them up one end of the run then lift up the small lid above them reach in and pick them up, even the wildest types, then I unclip the whole fowl house and run and take the 3 lids off the top of the run and resemble some where else , I also save their litter and put it back in , they don't have a floor , I just put saw and bark chips in when needed and when it gets to be quite deep litter I use for compost , it's very good and can be used straight away and it doesn't smell

The fowl house just unclips, no nuts and bolts to unscrew, and I found I could buy (I call it plastic wood) it's recycled plastic, in the size I used to make the runs so I screwed long pieces 2 inches X 1 inch X 6 foot long onto the bottom of the run and the fowl house base to stop it rotting , and I have strips of light weld mesh , the whole fowl house and run frame work sits on this about 10 inches wide  , to stop foxes digging in, and a bit protruding on the inside of the chicken enclosure to stop them digging a hole to let the fox in

Mark Deichmann wrote:
Do you have any native willow in your area. If you read my post , there is some here.

Not on my woodlot. I've seen grown trees that look like willow close by but they're on private land.
I've asked the potter woman about this (she also weave baskets on occasion) and she didn't
know of any local sources.

After seeing Barbara's shelter now I want to build myself a small greenhouse with a wattle and daub north wall.

Nice work JW, I really like the colours you have there. The willow I have found looks like the greenish one in your basket. Thanks for info . Myself I like the more rustic type basket with the bark left on and the natural colour just as you have done.

The more refined debarked basketry/wicker like they do in France is to me too bland looking even though it is obviously professionally made, and for the food service one can"t have bark I suppose.

JW do you soak your stems in warm water prior to use or is cold ok?  

Barbara has a great set-up !  Nice to see the thin straight stems. One year old right?  The ones I got are thicker 2 year old, that"s how long it took me to harvest some Ha ha.

Nice with the chickens right in the willow patch. I bet those eggs have nice dark yolks !

As far as red bark goes , has anyone tried the Red Osier?  Its really a dogwood but very decorative stems. It grows wild her, but not often straight, although I know of a place...

Hi Mark, found this about red willow. He mentions that he is harvesting form beaver coppiced plants. That is one thing I love about a lot of riparian trees, they have evolved to be coppiced by beavers regularly.

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/paleoplanet69529/tutorial-on-making-a-melon-basket-from-willow-and--t31866.html

I like the color of the bark too. Although, a weathered peeled basket is nice.

Here is another source for cuttings, lessons, baskets...west coast.

http://www.dunbargardens.com/

I am finding that splitting rods using a wide bladed knife as a froe is working well enough. When splitting if I apply more pressure to the half that I want to thin, and go slow enough to do about an inch at a time, I can get a nice length. To thin down, I am holding a matt  knife blade in a steady position above a board, like a jig and pull the rod through.


I think this basket is peeled willow, am appreciating anew its construction, is this  french randing? It starts from the tip ends and grows in thickness, then continued butt to butt end...

Thanks for the link JW !!

That was interesting., basically the method I am using with the hoop and ribs . That is really nice red stems from the beaver pond. Our red dogwood is even brighter red, although usually too branchy.  Thanks for sharing !!

Francis !,  The native willow in our area does get big, so its hard to recognise , but if you look to the upper part of where the old stems bend over you will see the straight shoots.  It needs to be cut down (coppiced) or like JW referred to , chewed by beavers , to make all the young shoots close to the ground.

Let me know if you ever come down this way , there is lots of it on city land that is all swampy and you can probably dig up a clump of roots to take back home , unless you can get what you need closer.

The two year old stems I can get alot of would be good for the wattle.  Also in our area the choke cherry , which doesn't get big anyway is also good and flexible.

I was glad to find that out, as I have alot I have coppiced twice close to my garden so it will come down again and try a wattle fence I thought.

i've got a bunch of Curly Willow rooted out, and also quite a lot to take fresh cuttings of, if anyone is interested in a trade...
i took a bunch of easy cuttings a few months ago and got just about every single one to root, yes so easy- i like the 3 step process posted on the earlier page . =)

the curly willow would make some fun basket weaving material and for other crafts. sometimes called Corkscrew Willow - Salix matsudana 'Tortuosa'.

anywho if anyone wants to hit me up by private message (moosage) for a trade- i like berry starts, young fruit trees, seedlings or rooted cuttings, have been lately looking for blueberries, strawberries and quite a few other things...i would trade for...

though keep in mind i am in america and wouldnt want to ship outside of this country...

Mark, I am with you, I love the melon basket shapes. I tried and did not get far, inserting the ribs was the downfall. Maybe the next try. I am amazed at the difference in workability between subspecies, some just shatter but the coyote willow is almost like rope.
Looking at this, I think I will try scalloming a much longer section so there is more of a foundation to insert the ribs into.

Another source for cuttings etc.

http://www.willowglennursery.com/willow-cuttings.php

Jw thanks for sharing !

What I did to secure the "hoop" that worked really well was to put a small clamp on middle of join and then I wound strips of willow bark , bark side out , as tightly as I could using hitches at start and finish of each strip. Once at the clamp  I could remove it and bind the rest of the join. This gave a strong hoop which I then let dry over night.  They tighten up nicely.
Next day I put on two cross ribs which I also bound with bark where they meet at bottom but bent the upper parts around the hoop and twisted them around themselves like the guy with the beaver willow did, only I bound the ends with bark.
Again apologize for no photos available , I have been very busy getting spruce logs out of the woods before the ground thaws ! And need to look for new camera.
Look forward to sharing in a better way soon !

Terrible focus but I wanted to show the basic outline at least of my hoop and cross ribs. Again I will soon be able to do better on the photos.

I intend to put on two more ribs to divide the remaining spaces.

leila hamaya wrote:i've got a bunch of Curly Willow rooted out, ... the curly willow would make some fun basket weaving material and for other crafts. sometimes called Corkscrew Willow - Salix matsudana 'Tortuosa'.

For the fence of the community garden we first used 'curly willow'. We got it for free and it seemed 'fun'... But it wasn't
The curls / waves of the branches did not agree with the direction we wanted to weave them. It was impossible to make a neat and strong fence with those branches.

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:

leila hamaya wrote:i've got a bunch of Curly Willow rooted out, ... the curly willow would make some fun basket weaving material and for other crafts. sometimes called Corkscrew Willow - Salix matsudana 'Tortuosa'.

For the fence of the community garden we first used 'curly willow'. We got it for free and it seemed 'fun'... But it wasn't
The curls / waves of the branches did not agree with the direction we wanted to weave them. It was impossible to make a neat and strong fence with those branches.

yes it is tricky...i have played with it some. trying to do something with the live trees mustve been hard.
when you cut each piece they are all very distinct...it is something like puzzle pieces to get them together in a way that will work.
i suppose you have to have a knack for it, sculpting more than just weaving...

not all of them are totally curved, some are mostly straight ish but its a variation with each piece...sort of like fitting stones together when you build a rock wall...you have to have a feel for where it wants to go.

i have seen some cool baskets made of stuff similar, vines and such, and i do like the look of that stuff, more texture and sculptural.
i think i can work out how to make it work out great for dreamcatchers....

i did make a willow fence myself, but i started off with a huge bunch of willow trees that were already long ago established. that helped, but it still took forever and i really hardly never got it anywhere close to complete.  that was just with whatever the common west coast native willow is, which as best as i can figure, it was "shining willow"....

it was pretty cool though...after years of working on it...

Here are a few of my baskets:

Mark,red osier is a favourite for baskets,I use it especially for joining the handle to the rim as it's very supple which is nessicary for the tight weave needed for this joint.I also use them for handles and rims as they are flexible but strong,have a frame started so will post.This year because of drought there was little growth but was able to find a few.

I love this post!  I'm a woodturner but I've been looking for something to craft from the food forest.  Can't wait for the first harvest in 2019!

Thanks to everyone who made this an interesting post.


Regards, Scott

Thanks so much for posting, Brian. What a range of materials! I just saw part of a French video where he is gathering clematis vines and simmering them before using, and I was wondering how many materials that do not want to bend green would be bendier with this treatment. I tried bending some clematis earlier and the older vines just snapped. Also saw some folks soak then steam their willow before use, using a wallpaper steamer with the nozzle stuck under an enclosing tarp, saying it made for softer rods than just soaking.

  I have been trying simple bordhouses with a spoke base, now waiting on the late snow to melt enough to gather more.

 Found some videos showing a base being made and a border:

http://hannavanaelst.com/

There is a link there to youtube and her videos. Thank you Hanna!!! So helpful to see the actual making and how she is clamping with her hands and feet. If I had seen them sooner, she has a nice trick to finishing her enclosed forms, soooo much easier than what I have been trying to do.

A blog, some food and a lot of willow. She has gone to a lot of workshops available on the East coast. Also, has a post on using willow bark.

        https://sandra-kehoe.squarespace.com/blog-1/?offset=1502842723347

Those root baskets were made with dry roots gathered in winter from creek bank,very brittle but soaked thet are very supple.

Time for some experimenting! Thanks Brian.

There are courses in Britain for weaving your own willow coffin.  How self reliant is that! It's cheaper than buying one and you could use it as an interesting lounge feature until it needs to be used.  Maybe a blanket box at the end of the bed.....

Sign me up for a willow coffin!

I saw this at Heritage Farms in Waco, Tx. They give classes and sell baskets.

Looks like the main supports are drilled into the antler. Cool stuff. Makes me want to give it a try.

https://youtu.be/kQAzViyN9VU

A lovely use for the skill. If you enjoy that video, watch this