The second basket in our series looks at this sturdy, traditional working basket in heavy, mostly brown willows. Once used on farms throughout East Anglia as a cattle feed basket (usually filled with sugar beet) but nowadays, most people use them as a log basket or for jobs around the garden. Tremendously strong, we used to sell these to local scaffolding firms to fill with metal scaffolding clips; this basket will take a lot of weight!
(Confusingly, all non-stripped willow is professionally referred to as ‘brown’ regardless of the colour, nowadays most people use the term ‘bark-on’ to refer to unstripped willow).
This course is suitable for someone who has some experience of round work and would like to challenge themselves by using bigger materials. Many of the skills learned in course one are transferable to this basket.
With each course, there is a PDF containing everything you need to complete your basket. You will find information on willow sizes and varieties, willow cultivation, soaking and mellowing times, as well as the basket “recipe” for this course. I would advise reading the document thoroughly before doing any practical work.
We start with a brief chat about willow cultivation, varieties, soaking/mellowing times, tools and workshop set-up.
Below is a list of the techniques you will learn in this course.
- Selecting and preparing bottom sticks
- Tying the slath using walk around method
- Slewing the bottom
- Adding pairing rods
- Selecting and slyping the stakes on the back
- Staking up
- Pricking up
- 4 rod waling starting in two places
- 3 rod waling (chasing)
- Adding in method for waling
- Slewing
- Controlling the stakes
- 5 rod border
- Slyping and ‘cranking’ rods for rope handles
- Rope handle sequence
By the end of this course you will have the confidence to work with bigger materials and the ability to “crank” a willow rod, enabling you to attach rope handles to a variety of different baskets. (Cranking may take some practice but is worth persevering with). You will be able to slew a bottom and the sides of a basket, increasing your speed of production should you consider basket making as a profession or to supplement your income.
I hope you have enjoyed the course and go on to make many more baskets. As previously, I would advise making around six or more of each basket to assimilate the techniques before going on to make different shaped baskets. Remember, repetition is the key 🙂
Until we have a buy it now facility courses can be purchased in different ways, its best to email us first to check which is best for your country. We take payment from the UK by bank transfer or international payments via Wise or our euro bank account.
For payment via UK bank transfer please use the payment details below:
Santander Business Account, Ruth Charlton Artisan Vannier sort code 09-01-50 account 03544451 for UK sterling payments. We also have a Euro account, details upon request.
Please email us stating which course(s) you would like to purchase and then once payment has been made we will email the Introductory Video Course together with the Basketry tuition video for download from We Transfer or by a You Tube link and the PDF document.