A showcase for each of the 'baskets' I make on the way to 100 - some more baskety than others. Featuring twined baskets, coiled baskets and looping.
1, 2 Twining Class
The very start of my basketry journey, these two string baskets were made at the twining class I attended with wonderful basket maker Lizzie Kimbley | Hand-Woven Contemporary Sustainable Textiles
Photos showing them from the bottom and top - the smaller basket uses a bundle base and the larger has interlocked warps and was formed around a mould.
3 Fabric Experiment
Wanting to check I could remember the process and try it with completely different materials I used macrame yarn for the warps and strips of cotton sheet for the twining threads, halfway up I added in a row of cable (from some broken headphones found in the street!) I do not like the way this looks but it led to me trying all sorts of other materials in further experiments.
4 - Egg Basket
I call this the egg basket because somehow it ended up like a crazy, wooly, nest, egg cup! Using wire to form the warps and tying on lots and lots of strands to stick out I created this mad thing using donated wool. I decided the wool was too white so after making stained it in a tea bath.
5, 6 Fairy Baskets
Experiments in making things tiny - one twined and one coiled. Pound coin for scale. The numbering gets hazy at this point as I was working on multiples at one time, the coiled mini basket definitely came later but I wasn't counting properly yet.
7 Sea Coils
Using my large stash of charity shop and donated wool I started coiling. Wrapping the wool around old cables, found washing line (literally found discarded in the street) and anything else bendy and workable. I made a bunch of these, working out how to manipulate the shapes and practicing the basics before further experimentation with the technique.
8 Multi coil - medium
Continuing the practice and working on making straight up sides. Loving the bright pop of neon - the yellow is from a half made crochet blanket I found in a charity shop and am slowly unpicking to use the vibrant wool.
9 Bread Bag Twine
I heard someone on a podcast talking about making a 'breadbasket' using bread bags so gave it a go. I discovered using plarn (plastic yarn) for twining is really good because you can continuously add to the length, by looping on a new strip, which means there aren't any ends to try and tuck up the warps. The warps for this are made from old USB leads.
10, 11 Earth Coils
Two small baskets that belong together. I had been working on my Four Elements project just before this basket journey and although Sea Coil came about by chance it led to my decision to add Earth and Sun (still thinking about how to do Air but I'll come up with something!) I had originally thought that I would join these, but decided instead that I like the way they stack and sit next to each other. Still intending to try joining at a later date.
12 Computing Cables
More plarn used for this one - a large green piece plastic bag sent to me by a friend with a blue carrier bag adding the vertical stripes. The colourful cables came out of a hard drive and have been saved in my stash of 'things to use one day' for ages. I followed instructions from Stella Harding and Shane Waltner's excellent Practical Basketry Techniques to make the looped top of this basket.
13 Sun Coil
Following on from Earth and Sea, and more practice in manipulating different shapes with the sides.
14 Sainsburys
Named for the classic orange Sainsbury's bag. Again using plarn and colourful hard drive cables looped at the top.
15 Large Multi
The largest of the coiled baskets I had made to date, these multi colours are my personal favourite, I just find them so pleasing to the eye.
16 Coiled Brooches
Although there are 12 of these I have counted them as one - small circles using embroidery threads and USB/headphone cables. I made them into brooches to perhaps sell, but don't mind if they end up back with me being played with, joined and attached to other things.
17 - Square bottom twine and coil
This took a ridiculously long time to make and is an example of the effort outweighing the finished product but I persevered! Still not sure it is finished as I made decide to cover the rest of the black cables. I started making this, following instructions from Practical Basketry Techniques, and very quickly realised that the materials I was using were not suitable, but I carried on anyway and did eventually end up with something 'done'
18 - Crazy Coils #1
Venturing away from vessel and into something else entirely, playing with shape and form. A loose plan to create a few of these that can be joined and displayed as a wall hanging.
19, 20, 21 Looping Experiments
Following instructions from Donna Kallner's New Age Looping eCourse available on YouTube. String vessel and drawstring bag following the videos in Lesson 1, then copper wire to see if I could do it.
Fragments of looped work have been found dating back to 9000BC - At this stage I am keen to find out more about the history and keep practicing the technique by initially following the rest of Donna's lessons.
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