Years ago I used to make a lot of oak splint baskets. I even taught some classes on how to make them. But when my local material supplier went out of business, my interest waned. Outside of a few grapevine baskets I haven’t made a basket in at least 15 years.
That all changed when Sis asked me to make Easter baskets for the babies that could be heirlooms for them.
I contacted an old friend who now has a basket shop up in the NE to get my supplies. I explained what I wanted to make and she sent me the supplies in the form of a couple kits she put together. And she sent some extra reed as she already knew I like to do my own thing when weaving.
The first basket I put together was for Little Hoss. I made each basket a different shape and his was square.
It came together fairly quickly. I was very happy that muscle memory took over and it was like I’d never stopped weaving.
I’ve always like putting decorative handles on my baskets, so of course I had to do them for the babies too.
After finishing the square basket, I started Little Bird’s round one.
This stage is always so aggravating! I put a plate on the bottom to keep the form even.
Her handle was pink on the top and teal on the bottom.
Here is Little Hoss’ basket loaded up…
…and Little Bird’s too.
And a short time later, Little Bird was using that basket to hunt her eggs. (Gotta have those eggs kind of obvious when it’s a 20 month olds first time hunting!)
