Splint Woven Basketry

by Robin Daugherty

Baskets are one of the few things we still haven't learned to mass produce to look as good as handmade. Try your hand at 30 elegant basket styles using splint materials--wood and grass pounded or split into flat strips. Shapes include traditional egg, melon, feather, cradle, oriole, shaker, and others that have all but disappeared from sight. A complete guide to tools, equipment, and materials helps you select splints from rattan, cane, oak and ash, rope, sisal, and sea grass. Learn the old ways of gathering, drying, storing, and soaking splints from trees, bushes, vines, marsh plants, bulbs, grasses, and husks. Get special tips on handles, rims, bases, lids, paints, and dyes. Choose from ribbed styles like the Winged Egg Basket or the Oriole. Or a plaited basket like the Great Lakes, Cherokee, or Shaker. Or the spoked baskets like the Field, Provender, and Quiver. A full-color photo gallery showcases each basket, along with stories that tell how they evolved into their current styles. 168 pages, 8 1/2 x 11.

168 pages, Paperback

First published June 30, 1999

Reviews

[Ami · Rating 2 out of 5]

Has a brief section in the beginning about natural materials, and how to gather and prepare them. Follows is the main part of the book, with patterns for different baskets. Very technical. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how the natural materials could translate to use in the basket patterns, since the cattails I have are tapered. Are they trimmed? Are they used as-is, to make a less even-looking basket? If/when I decide to use the cattails I collected in making a basket, I think this would be a helpful book to revisit.