Making Rattan Storage Baskets

Rattan and the other materials on the market that are made from rattan make perhaps the source of basketry supplies that is most accessible for the majority of weavers in this country, certainly for those who live in a town or the city. And for these users of rattan there is a group of do's and don'ts that apply to the weaving of all baskets from that material. Many of them are also applicable to the making of baskets from any stiff material.

First, rattan does have to be wet in order to make it pliable enough to bend without cracking. However, don't soak the whole lot of it, but only those lengths or parts of the lengths that must do the bending; as, for instance, to start a center. Here only the portion of the material that is to be in the center need be soaked. Hot water will hasten the softening process. When the spokes (the foundation over which the weaving is done) must be turned up for the sides or the border woven, water may be applied to the work with a cloth just wherever the bends must be made. If it is necessary to keep the place damp, a cloth wrung out of hot water may be wrapped around the basket like a bandage over the portions that must be made pliable. But do not immerse the entire basket. And this is why. The material swells as it absorbs water, and a basket woven of wet rattan is loose after drying and likely to be warped as well. Also, each wetting roughens the surface and makes the fiber more brittle when dry.

When the base of the basket is finished and the sides have to be shaped and woven at the same time, the weaver is sometimes embarrassed by the lack of enough hands, especially if the basket is large and very stiff. It will usually require two hands just to hold it down unless some mechanical device is used. A good way is to fasten the woven base, round or rectangular, to a board with quarter-inch-wide tapes. If the base is round, the tapes must cross one another over the center, and if it is a rectangle, the necessary number are fastened across the base in one direction and then a second layer at right angles over them. For either base enough tapes must be used so that the edge of the weaving will not lift up between tapes when the spokes are turned for the sides.

The small-headed tacks called gimp tacks are best for fastening down the tapes. And they should be driven into the board all the way, as close as possible to the edge of the weaving. Any thick board that is larger than the base of the basket will do. A box end is good and can be got from the grocer. This simple system of tapes not only frees both hands of the worker for weaving and shaping the sides, including the border, but it will insure a flat base for the basket. This is a feature that one is not at all sure of when weaving entirely "in the hand".

Another help in shaping the sides of the basket is to tie the spokes together at the top so that the tying conies directly above the center of the base. If there are many spokes it is usually necessary to tie them in groups, taking three or four together from opposite sides for each group. The spokes may then be pulled out or pushed in until they form a skeleton of what the basket will be in silhouette. Even if the side of the basket is to flare, it is easier to make the turn from base to side if the spokes are tied while the first two or three rows of side weaving are put in.

Another advantage in tying the spokes is that the weaving can be left at any time without fear that the basket will be sprung out of shape by sagging spokes or that the latter will get broken.

If the basket is woven over round rattan and is designed to have straight sides, tying alone will not insure a right angle between base and side. But a small wedge cut out of each spoke at the inner point of the bend will make it possible to turn the side up perpendicular.

One particularly difficult point in shaping the weaving, especially of a round basket, is to gauge the flare at its start so that the finish will be exactly the planned-for width or have the expected curve. A full-sized outline of the basket drawn in heavy crayon on a sheet of paper can be used as a working pattern to check up the weaving as it is done. By holding the pattern behind the work, with its base on a level with that of the basket, any divergence in the sides of the latter from the pattern outline can be easily detected. Of course the outline on paper must not be in perspective, but drawn as if at eye-level, with straight lines for the top and bottom, not ellipses.

Just one more do and another don't - both for the border. Do try to finish it at one time after beginning. It will be smoother than a piecework border. And do not cut off the ends after the border is finished until the material is dry. It shrinks in drying and may get too short to hold. This "don't" applies to the cutting and trimming off of all ends when using rattan.

There are just two tools needed in basket-making, i.e., something to cut the reed and a long, straight awl. A pair of strong scissors will do for the cutting, but pruning-shears make a cleaner cut and do it more easily. So it is worth while to get them if much weaving is to be done. The small, nickeled kind with a spring, sold by the name of German pruning-shears, is the best.

Any large hardware store can supply them and also the awl. The latter is for making a start under tight bindings, or between close, firm weaving into which ends must be tucked for concealmentor where the foundation of a handle must be thrust. It is also useful for straightening spokes that get bent during the weaving. By the way, one of the nice indications of good workmanship in basketry is the character of the spokes. A round basket that is symmetrically made has spokes that radiate straight from the center and are equal distances apart on the same circumference. In a square basket they are straight and parallel to one another.

Continue: Basket Weaving Patterns.