The Thing: Basket Weaving

The Lost Trades Fair set me all-a-buzz with the need to weave a cane basket. I had purchased a sweet little kit to make my 'Your First Basket' from And Woven Cane, with the ill-thought-out brainwave to head to the nearest craft supply shop to buy a second lot of all the materials so Jess and I could make one each. I went to said nearest craft shop: no cane. I went to the second and third nearest craft shops and they didn't have any either. Neither did any of the hardware shops. At this point I risked a massive over-investment of time in this project. Decisive action: our 'Your First Basket' would be a collaborative thing.

Basket Weaving Lesson #1: Purchase basket weaving supplies from the interwebs.  Wicker-Works Cane Specialists seems a good place to start, although their little catch phrase asks, "need a good caning?" An attempt at humour? Dubious, at best.

We set aside a morning for this little project, which was perfect. From start to finish it took us about 3 hours; this included a couple of pots of tea, innumerable interruptions from the little ones and a break for honey sandwiches. Remove those things, as well as the hundred times we stopped weaving to marvel at just how badly our little basket was progressing, and we could probably get it down to an hour and a half. Although why we would want to do this is beyond me. The interruptions just add to the fun.

While the weaving techniques for this basket were as simple as it gets, there were still a multitude of ways to make mistakes. Pull too tight and your basket tapers in, too loose and it gets flimsy. Bend the cane too sharply and it breaks. Don't push each row down firmly enough (and firmly means REALLY FIRMLY. Like lumberjack-hands firmly) and your basket is gappy and uneven. Ignore how many rows of seagrass they suggest in the instructions and your basket turns out much taller than the one in the picture...

Weaving with cane is no delicate pastime. It's hard on your fingers and, while you have to be deft and gentle, you also have to be strong and decisive with your movements. The cane isn't nearly as maleable as it appears when you watch a skilled craftsperson working. 

Our basket turned out to be, well...quite quaint. There is no better word for it. We gazed, awestruck, for a while at our finished product and wondered why we made it in the first place, given that we had no real purpose for it. If it had a handle it might be good for collecting things in. If it was prettier it might serve as something ornamental or make for a sweet little gift. We popped a few different things in it (the elderflower looks great in it, but it serves no practical purpose whatsoever) and decided that it is perfect for holding walnuts. That's right guys. We made a walnut basket.  

So here are some questions:

• Can we make a basket that's lovely and practical enough to proudly give as a gift? So, you know, one that's lovelier and more practical that this one.
• If I needed a basket, would I be more likely to make one than buy one pre-made?
• Are there more readily available alternatives to cane that we can use in our future baskets?
• Aside from the Lost Trades Fair, where to basket weavers hang out?

And a broader question for the philosophers out there:

• Can we justify spending time on craft when there is no real purpose for the product?

Which inevitably leads to:

• What is the meaning of life?

I think it's clear where this Thing is heading: We'll get busy addressing these questions, and then the challenge is to make a basket from readily available materials that's attractive and useful enough to give proudly as a gift. We have a bit of work to do, to be completely honest.