Basket scrapbook

This will be a somewhat brief introductory post to flat reed basket weaving, these two patterns are provided. Below are SOME websites you can buy supplies at:

Basketweaving.com

Peerlessratten.com

Thecountryseat.com

Explore these websites, as you learn basket weaving there's different materials you can learn to use and replace others and these websites will often provide the tools you will need too. You can use dyes or stain for flat reed, I have more experience with dyeing which basically involves boiling the color and then dunking the reeds in it.

Flat reed is literally that, flat reeds. Many flat reeds used are commercial but some traditional ones will be made of splints from trees such as Ash or White Oak. They are soaked in water and then shaped and woven into the craft desired.

Source

These patterns will tell you how you will need to cut your reeds. You will need a water source, preferably a tub of some kind, an awl, measuring tool, and a flat workspace.

Tips:

Do not let your flat reeds stay wet for too long! Let it dry in an open air space when you are not working on it or when it is complete, FLAT REED CAN MOLD.

If you soak flat reed for too long it can become mushy and unusable, at the very least if you soak it for extended periods be careful with how you bend it.

Flat reed tends to (not always) have a 'rough' and 'smooth' side, you want the rough side to be on the inside of your basket.

If you're a flat reed has started to split trim it as close to the split as you can as quickly as you can or it spreads.

Starting is the most difficult part and no basket will look like the end result in the beginning. Getting overwhelmed is normal, come back to it, these are not projects you do in one sitting.

Reed is commercially available in flat, round, and half-round. Flat reed handles very much like wood splint, although it's softer overall (and especially remains soft when the basket has dried, versus ash or oak). Cane is somewhat similar to finely split bamboo. Due to... a number of factors... rattan materials are much more widely available (and affordable) than either wood splint or bamboo processed for weaving, and are very often used to weave basket styles that have historically been made of those materials. Rattan of course also has its own history of weaving use as well!

“The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.”

― Louisa May Alcott

Everlasting

Clíodhna

Copper, Willow, Olive

The view from the master bedroom leads through an opening that can be closed with a pair of pocket doors. In bedroom two, a loft space over the door extends over the hall. The wall sconces are segments of terra-cotta flower pots, cut in half and plastered to the wall. Prior to varnishing, the floors were lightly pigmented with a wash of pink paint.