Wicker Basket in a Day Workshop with Robin Leenhouts

For those of us who have always admired the beautiful woven baskets, Robin spent the day patiently mentoring newbies into the art of basket weaving.

The first step was cutting the different size reeds. For our basket, we used size 2,3, and 5 reeds. The reeds need to be moist to prevent cracking as you manipulate them. After cutting the reeds, we used the size 3 reeds to create a cross by putting a hole in the center of 2 of the reeds and inserting the other 2 reeds.

After creating the cross, using a size 2 reed we started to separate the size 3 reed cross. I’m not going to pretend to explain every step of this intricate process but I learned that the reeds need to be wet otherwise cracking will happen.

After creating the bottom of the basket, our next step was to add the side ribs and start to shape the basket.

As we designed the basket, we started to add color into the design as well as we had the option to change our weaving structure.

Robin then showed us how to finish our basket. As you can see, many different unique designs were created.