Thanks! If you just harvest the leaves, your grass might work better. Happy weaving!
"And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else."
1 Thessalonians 5:14-15
I used mallow vines to weave a bramble-style basket. Their vines are tough, fibrous, and still usable after the hard frost. However, the longest vines I could find were less than 3 feet long, so I have a lot of tips sticking out. It still holds berries!
Here is my submission for weaving a basket. This is my first attemp, so cool to have try it. I made it with Cornus stolonifera. I understand better why other plants could be better, they could probably more pliable. I have plant many salix this autumn, hope they will grow strong so i could try them.
Radis.
Living and growing on my small homestead near a project of permaculture school.
"There are no non-radical options left before us" Naomie Klein in This Changes Everything
I've never woven a basket before, esp. using just locally harvested materials. I've shown my artwork in some major high end exhibitions next to some of the current living masters of basket weaving and thought that would be a pretty cool thing to explore someday. However, having seen such masterful work leaves me a bit sheepish even posting mine here! I will anyway, because one has to start somewhere and my goal with this basket wasn't to produce a work of art. Rather it was about beginning my education in actually doing this. That's what I like about the SKIP program, it's a collection of projects with curated videos to help us learn real skills, and some fun motivation to just give things a try.
So I learned a lot about the very basics of weaving a basket. I began with a bunch of perennial arugula that has gone to seed and in the process of dying back for the season out in my greenhouse. I'm not certain how well it will hold up when dried out. It usually seem rather tough when I'm trying to clean out the beds each year. It does provide lots of long, reasonably flexible lengths of material. I wasn't terribly happy with the whole project during the early stages, almost deciding to just scrap this and do something else with my afternoon, but I stuck with it. As the sides came up I got much more into this, liking the feel of it and inner space being created. Having worked with the irregular arugula and knowing how much of a control freak I am when it comes to fine craft I can tell if I want to pursue this more I will need to find a material where I can get more consistency of thickness and flexibility. Hopefully the bamboo I planted years ago will finely settle in and take off. I noticed last week that at least one patch I had all but given up on looks like it might be doing just that!
Anyway, here is my first basket, created from woven arugula for consideration for this BB.
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The materials I'm starting with, a tangles mass of overgrown arugula.
Here is the harvesting basket I made using willow for the weavers and some of the struts, and hazel for the two hoops that form the top oval and carrying handle. I bought the willow but foraged the hazel. The hazel is formed into two ovals that fit together, tied in place and then set out to dry.
I use this basket both to harvest food from my allotment (10 minute walk from home) and also sometimes when I go foraging. It makes me feel like little red riding hood :)
The basket is woven from Virginia Creeper vines. This is the optimum time of year to gather this vine because it's supple but hasn't put out leaves yet.
01-Gathering-Brambles.jpg
02-Prepping-brambles.jpg
03-weaving-base.jpg
04-finishing-spokes.jpg
05-Finished-basket.jpg
06-finished-basket.jpg
“Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with colored flowers and herbs” St. Francis of Assisi