After I made the sample coil baskets for this week's American Girl Club I just couldn't get baskets off my mind! I kept thinking about how the Native American's would not have had cotton cord to use as the base for their baskets. I wanted to see what it would be like to make a basket just from natural materials. I already had my big bag of unruly raffia! So I figured I would give it a try! (BTW, my son looked it up online and raffia comes from a Raffia Palm tree and the material we buy in the craft stores is the fibrous part of the palm leaves.)
After looking around online a little I decided my biggest problem with the unruly raffia was that I was trying to use it dry. So this time I soaked it first. This made a HUGE difference!
Here is my basket in the process of being made. Basically I have a handful of the raffia going to the left and a couple pieces going up and around. Then you just wrap, coil and tuck. (Over and over and over.) To add to the wrapping side I took a couple of new strands grasp the end of the new pieces into the left side and then started including it in the part I was using to wrap. When my ends got short I just bent them over into the left side and wrapped them up to. To add to the other side I would grab a bundle and work it in as I was wrapping. It was really fun!
Here is the end result! As you can see I ended up making two. I had soaked the whole bag of raffia and I couldn't bring myself to throw any of it away. So I used it all up. :^)
I left a little of the part I was wrapping sticking out and used a fresh piece to tie it off and make a bow. I like that the loose raffia showing so you can see that it is made completely of the raffia. :^)
Now I just keep thinking about the fact that the baskets Kaya made had to be able to hold water! LOL I can't even imagine how to get one to do that!
The fun thing about homeschooling is it's not just the kids who are learning!
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An extremely dense, vertically developed cumulus with a relatively hazy outline and a glaciated top extending to great heights, usually producing heavy rains, thunderstorms, or hailstorms.
This made a HUGE difference!
Basically I have a handful of the raffia going to the left and a couple pieces going up and around. Then you just wrap, coil and tuck. (Over and over and over.) To add to the wrapping side I took a couple of new strands grasp the end of the new pieces into the left side and then started including it in the part I was using to wrap. When my ends got short I just bent them over into the left side and wrapped them up to. To add to the other side I would grab a bundle and work it in as I was wrapping. It was really fun!
As you can see I ended up making two. I had soaked the whole bag of raffia and I couldn't bring myself to throw any of it away. So I used it all up. :^)
Posted by Dana @ School For Us
