Background

• The basket is one of humankind's oldest art

forms, and it is certainly an ethnic and cultural
icon filled with myth and motif, religion and
symbolism, and decoration as well as
usefulness. Basketry, in fact, encompasses a
wide range of objects from nearly rigid, box-
like carriers to mesh sacks.
• Some baskets are manufactured by machines,
however part of the tradition is that baskets are
defined as receptacles that are woven by hand
of vegetable fibers.
• Basketry exemplifies the creative use of materials
for the environment and implies extensive
knowledge of different materials and their natural
properties.

• Basketry has a communal meaning and function:

mediate between humans and nature.

• Basket making is a complex weaving skill that

requires technical and creative expertise. Each
weaver approaches the material in a different way.
Basket weaving
 Is the hand-crafted method of creating woven
baskets from natural grasses
Raw Materials used in basket making
 include a wide range of plant fibers including roots,
cane, twigs, and grasses; reeds, raffia, and basket
willows may be the best known.
Basket made in BAMBOO Basket made in Basket made in
RAFFIA CANE

Basket made in PAPER Basket made in RATTAN

 Tools
• Work Board
• Small Hand
• Small/ Medium
Bodkin (bradawl)
• Shears
• Round-nosed pliers
• Side Cutters
• Ruler for
measuring.
Basket Weaving Techniques
Plaiting/ checkerwork
 Two elements are woven over and under each
other at right angles. Twilled weave is much the
same, except that the weft (horizontal) materials
are woven over two or more warps (verticals).

Wicker
 the basket-maker weaves the weft material over
and under a stiff foundation or warp of rods or
bundles of fiber.
Basket Weaving Techniques
Twining
 Twined work begins with a foundation of rigid
elements, or warp rods—very often whole plant
shoots—around which two, and sometimes three or
four, weft elements are woven. The wefts are
separated, brought around a stationary warp rod,
brought together again, and twisted.
 Subtle and elegant patterns are made by changing
the number of wefts (as in braiding and overlay), or
the number of warps the wefts pass over (as in
diagonal weaves). A weaver may use any number of
twining variations in a single basket.
Basket Weaving Techniques
Coiling
 It begins at the center of a basket and grows upon itself
in spiral rounds, each attached to the round before.
Weaving coiled baskets is a sewing technique, as the
basket-maker uses an awl to punch holes in the
foundation through which she draws sewing strands.
These strands are single pieces of plant fiber that have
been trimmed to a uniform size.
 The foundation is made up of one, two, three, or
sometimes more slender plant shoots, bundles of grass
or shredded plant fibers, or a combination of grass and
sticks.
Basketry Bases
• There are various ways of starting a base depending firstly on
whether the shape is going to be oval, round or squared off.
Weaving Reed Basket
1Make the base of the 2 Bend the reeds. Bend the reeds
that stick out from the square base
basket. into an upwards position. These bent
reeds are called spokes. Bending
them will make it easier to weave and
these spokes will act as the supports
for the basket.
Weaving Reed Basket
3Split a center spoke. Split one end 4 Weave the basket
of either the third or eighth spoke,
starting where it comes out from
under the last spoke to cross it. You
will now have eleven spokes. You'll
be putting the weaver into the split.
Weaving Reed Basket
5 Foot the base. This means closing 6 Continue weaving. Keep attaching
up those square holes that are still in and weaving new reeds through the
the base. Starting in the left corner of spokes. Make sure that you don't pull
your basket. too hard on the corners, because that
will make your spokes bend inward
and you'll lose your basket's shape.
Weaving Reed Basket
7 Pack the base. Push or pull the
woven rows down towards the base
as you weave. Ensure that there is no
space between the base and the rows.
Start pressing or pulling from the
base and move up to the newer reeds
as you go.
8 Finish the top of the basket. Stop
weaving your last reed after you have
woven 4 spokes past the split spoke.
Taper the reed with scissors, moving
from the fourth spoke to the end of
the reed. Weave until all of the final
reed has been woven into the spokes.
Weaving Reed Basket
9 Trim the basket. Cut the spokes
with scissors. Fold the spokes
towards the inside of the basket over
the top row of reeds. Insert the end of
each spoke into the third row from
the top. Ensure that each spoke lies
flat against the inside of the basket.
10 Make the rim. You'll wrap a
reed around the top row of the basket
and pin it to the basket with a
clothespin. Now, anchor the new reed
by weaving its bottom end into the
top few rows inside the basket. This
reed is called the lacer.