DIY Network

Ribbed Weave Basket Visit DIY's Craft Lab to learn how to use vines to make a basket. From "Craft Lab" episode DCLB-150

Guest Mark Barnes joins host Jennifer Perkins and gives a lesson in what kinds of vines you can find in your own backyard as well as the strength and malleability of vines needed to make a basket. He demonstrates how to make the main frame to the basket and a God's eye technique in weaving.

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Guest Mark Barnes used vines from his yard to create this beautiful ribbed weave basket.

Ribbed Weave Basket

Project designed by Mark Barnes.

Materials:

hand-held garden pruning clippers
needle nosed pliers
gloves
kudzu and wisteria, used for weaving
grape vines to build frames
jasmine for random weave, or building frames in the rib baskets

	Figure A
	Figure B
	Figure C
	Figure D
	Figure E

NoteThe length of the vines is dependant on what the artist is most comfortable with using, but it is best to use vines at least three feet long. Kudzu and wisteria, both, can be split to reveal cream-colored centers, and splitting will make for easier weaving. They are very pliable and easy to weave with. Kudzu is a fast-growing vine found in the Southeastern United States. Grape vine is thinner, but it is stronger. You can tell a grape vine because it will have a little tendril growing off of it (figure A). Vines have a high moisture content and tend to shrink some. It is best to let them dry out before you work with them — any where from a couple of days to a week.

1. The kudzu vine is easier to work with if you split it, so take your pruners and make a little snip in the center to get it started. Grab hold of each side and start pulling the vine apart (figure B).

2. When doing the ribbed basket, you will start with two circles, one forming the handle and the other forming the rim of the basket. You start by inserting the horizontal rim inside the vertical handle, and lashing the two together with the God's eye pattern (figure C).

3. You need the God's eye pattern on both sides to lash the two circles together. To create the God's eye, you take the split vine and come underneath the two vines — (kudzu for the handle and grapevine for the rim) and pull it over (figure D). There will be a table there so weave around it to hold it in place so that it doesn't pop out. Come around back cross over and then come back to the front and cross over there. You will have a cross pattern on both sides. Continue wrapping over the rim and cross over the top to where the handle is. Once you have three inches of vine left, take needle nose pliers and take the end of the vine and push it in tight and then use the pliers to pull the end through.

4. When the God's eye is finished on both ends you will see pockets that will hold the ribs in place while you weave around them. The length of the ribs will depend on the overall size of the basket and the number of ribs used will determine how round the finished basket will be, but a minimum of six (three on each side of the base) ribs are needed to get the basic shape.

5. You will start filling in the bottom basket, by finding an open space to tuck in one end of the "weaving" vine, and going from rim to rim, which will be done going over one rib and under the next.

6. Start weaving beginning at one God's eye and leave a couple of inches at the other end of your weaver, which will be tucked back into the basket, as you finish that vine. From there, you will go to the other God's eye and do the same weaving. To finish filling in the base of the basket, you will alternate starting points from side to side, working towards the middle of the base (figure E).

RESOURCES :

Baskets from Nature's Bounty
By Elizabeth Jensen
ISBN: 0934026696
Interweave Press
Note: This book is out of print, but can be found on Amazon.

Handmade Baskets: From Nature's Colorful Materials
by Susie Vaughn
ISBN: 0855327553
Fitzhenry and Whiteside

Natural Fibers
Natural Fibers Group
Website: naturalfibersgroup.tripod.com/

Basketry from A to Z
Website: www.basketmakers.org/

GUESTS :

Mark Barnes
Website: www.kudzubasketry.com