Unit 222: Traditional basketry techniques

Traditional basket techniques

According to Dorothy Wright in The Complete Book of Baskets (1977) there are five main techniques for traditional basket making.
Please click the photos to go to the makers' websites.

Stake and strand baskets

These are the basket we have been learning to make in the first half of the level 2 course. This basket is by Sue Kirk.

Frame basket

Frame baskets are constructed on frame made from thicker material (hazel or thick willow usually) and then ribs are added to it and woven in. This example is by Emma Winter made at a Stella Harding workshop using hazel and mixed materials for the weavers.

Coiled basket

Coiled baskets are made by coiling material such as straw, rush or pine needles together and then sewing the coil together. These examples are by Aurore Whitworth from Scotland.

Plaited baskets

Plaited baskets are made of strips of material woven together. Producers user a variety of materials including rush, leather and cardboard.

Twined basket

Twining uses materials of a similar thickness to produce an almost textile like appearance. This example is by Lomanda Dilly bags.

Basket makers that use traditional techniques

Click on the screen shots to visit their websites.

Jenny Crisp/ Willow with Roots

Jenny and her daughter make beautiful willow products. Her lampshades for Pensons were what got me interested in taking the City & Guilds NVQ.

Sarah le Breton

Sarah le Breton makes great use of colour to update traditional baskets.

Lois Walpole

Uses non-traditional materials like old fishing nets with traditional techniques.

John Cowan Baskets

A traditional basket maker, trained in heritage baskets.

Examples of traditional baskets with handles

These types of baskets tend to be oval or round based with a central bow handle.

They tend to have a slath base and vary in the type of weave for the sides, some plain and other decorative like the example shown by Wild Wicker.

Foraging baskets are also made using frame techniques.

They are designed to be easy to carry and hold a manageable weight of produce for one person to carry.

Foraging basket with a strap by Wild Wicker

Whilst looking for foraging basket styles, several examples came up that were baskets with a strap that could be worn on the side to keep the hands free.

A version of this in a different shape would be so great for picking my many raspberries.

Basket by Wild Wicker.

This is a photo of my old manager at Shropshire Wildlife Trust, John Hughes.

He's a mushroom expert and had a basket specially designed to have a large base but be shallow,
so that he could pick lots of mushrooms but they wouldn't pile up on each other and get squashed.

Basket made by Kelvin a basket maker but I can't remember his last name!

Isaac Claesz. van Swanenburg, Het ploten en kammen, painting, 1594-96

Not much came up online when looking for inpiration down the wool route.

This old painting from the Netherlands shows several baskets that look much like modern log baskets using stake and strand techniques.

Isaac Claesz. van Swanenburg, Het ploten en kammen, painting, 1594-96

Cran (Gaelic for herring measure) baskets had lots more information online and were an interesting basket to research.

Results from the rabbit hole can be read - here.

A Scottish crofter's peat basket Victorian period credit Mary Evans Picture Library Photo Prints and Wall Art

When I worked for Shropshire Wildlife Trust, I did a project working on Whixall Moss, which was an active peat cutting site until the 1990s.

Peat carrying baskets seem to have a strap around the forehead or shoulders more than a handle. They are also fast made, quite rough, homemade baskets looking at the photos.

Scottish Island versions are also sometimes made of heather due to a lack of willow or other suitable trees to use to weave from.

A Scottish crofter's peat basket Victorian period credit Mary Evans Picture Library Photo Prints and Wall Art

I love Moses baskets and the examples online range from quite ornate weaves to ones that are beautiful in their simplicity like this one by John Waller Underwoodsman.

They are essentially large baskets with a handle either side using traditional side weaves like this slew on an oval base with randing at top and bottom.

They are named after the Exodus bible story of Moses being pushed down the river in his crib. They are widespread around the world and made from whatever local materials are to hand.

The shape of these baskets is dictated by it's function i.e. it needs to be able to hold a baby and be carried.

I came across this Bonnie Gale basket on the Stowe Basket Festival (USA) website where she is doing a class to make them.

A reverse Google image search suggests that these may also have been called My Lady's baskets and were decorative pieces carried by gentlewomen when strolling in grounds or to keep their needle work in.

After finding the Austrian Delight basket, this then threw up some other results for decorative market baskets from France, Germany and UK.

However, the searches also brought me back to this little basket from Acton Scott.

Results from the rabbit hole can be read - here.