The plant world provides us with so much; food, medicine, protection from the elements, and of course lovely views. One thing I really hope to practice more of in the coming years is harnessing the abundance of the natural fibers found in my local landscape to create the tools necessary to living the homesteading lifestyle.
A few years ago I began making baskets with the flexible branches of the willow tree. Here is one of my early attempts. I didn't follow any sort of pattern or technique and just did what I call a "wild weave". Even so, this basket has held together nicely all these years.
That basket works quite well for collecting leaves but, for finer things like seeds, I need a basket with a tighter weave. And so, I went out to gather my willow branches.
Once I had an armful of the most flexible but not too thin willow branches I returned to my workspace and began stripping the leaves.
Note that the ideal branches are ones that are fresh and green, collected in from spring to early fall. The moor woody branches as well as the very thin sections that are the newest growth should both be avoided. A few branches removed of leaves in hand I was ready to start weaving.
In order to create a tight weave we need to have a grid of some kind. There are so many ways to do this but I like to start with a basic four branch weave. My apologies for this out of focus picture! But, I think you get the idea here.
These four branches serve as a kind of guide for the rest of the basket and help the basket sit flat once it is all dried. As you can see there are large gaps between the willow I have woven thus far and I will fill that in as my progress continues.
From the base of the four branches I began weaving from top to bottom. I did this by taking two very flexible branches at a time and weaving one over then one under the four initial branches. Weaving around and around I will eventually add four more structural branches as the basket widens.
This sort of craft is quite a challenge to explain in blog format and I do plan to make a real tutorial video someday. I myself have watched many videos but really, the best teacher is experience and the first few baskets I made I did with no guidance from the internet, just a desire to make and a lot of time (during the pandemic) to give it a try.
I may be a beginner in the world of weaving but, I can say something for certain. Cats find the process of weaving very enticing, and are likely to attack you and the willow branches flying through the air, at any moment.