Archive
Log Basket Making
Make a traditional log basket from willow
Two day course
Log Basket Making
Students will make their own log basket over two days using traditional techniques. We recommend that students to have completed either the frame basket course or stake and strand or have any relevant previous experience to complete this log basket course.
Basketry making is the weaving of unspun vegetable fibers, usually to form a container. Baskets making done from any wood, vine, leaf, or fiber that could be formed into a desirable shape.
Basket making survives in many parts of the world today in forms, techniques, and materials similar to those used in past ages. While continuing as a living tradition, it has undergone a revival of interest among craftspeople, leading to new forms of expression. Just as weavers make pictures with tapestry, basket makers now use basketry making techniques to create sculpture.
Basket weaving is a craft nearly as old as human civilization itself. Even today, archeologists throughout the world continue to unearth baskets dating back thousands of years. Radiocarbon dating of baskets found in Faiyum, located in Upper Egypt, indicate they are between 10,000 and 12,000 years old. Other baskets, found in the Middle East, date back over 7,000 years. Historians agree that these ancient baskets are older than any pottery artifacts excavated to date. In fact, most historians agree that basket weaving is the world’s oldest known craft.
Because the art of basket weaving spans the globe, the terms and terminology used in this basket making craft is universal. Basket weaving terms are descriptive terms used to identify the tools and materials required, along with basket weaving terms and terminology related to basket weaving textures, styles, techniques. Some descriptions are exclusive to basketry, while others are also relative to other crafts and activities.
STAKE: the structural rod that forms part of a basket’s skeleton. Also known as the passive warp element of a stake and strand basket.
STRAND (OR WEAVER): the active weft woven between the stakes of a stake and strand basket.
Stake and Strand baskets are the 'type that you will find in current 'professional' basket making, basically introduced from Roman times. The material used will be local willow, and sometimes 'peeled willow' that is with the bark removed.