Basketry is thought to be one of the oldest and most widespread crafts, existing in almost all human cultures for millennia. The earliest examples of baskets can be found in the Middle East and date back 12,000 years, but the craft is thought to be much older. Few ancient baskets survive because they were made from organic materials.
The importance for early people of making baskets to use as containers to gather and transport supplies can’t be overstated. It played a fundamental role in the development of early human civilisation. But basket-weaving techniques had many other uses, including shelter building, floor matting, traps for hunting and fishing and fencing for livestock and crops. They were also used to make shoes and cloaks. It is even thought that basketry may have played a role in the development of early mathematics, because of the need to count the precise number of sticks needed to make a given piece.
Even in the 20th century, there would always have been an area of land nearby that was used to grow willow, and everyday baskets were widely in use well into the 1960s.
Basketry is a craft that has escaped modernisation in many ways. The willow in our kits is still grown in Somerset the same way it always has been and baskets are still made with the same tools and techniques that were used in the 16th century.
We teach basketry at MYOWN2HANDS.CO because like many of the other courses we offer, it was a core useful skill for early humans and is something we’ve done for the vast majority of our time on earth. We also love to make things that are both beautiful and useful.
Like knitting, basketry has long been a communal activity. It’s very lovely do on your own but also with a group of friends. Its rhythmic, slightly repetitive nature is great for helping your brain to relax.
It’s also affordable, requires hardly any tools and with a bit of care it can be done at home in your kitchen or in your garden.
What will you need to get started?
You hardly need any tools and to weave a basket and its absolutely possible to do the whole thing with just a pair of secateurs.
When you buy one of our kits, we will send you all the willow you will need to complete the basket. Other than that, you will need a bit of space (most kitchen tables or patios work fine), a small weight or stone to hold your basket down while you work on it, and sometimes it’s handy to have an old screwdriver lying around to help make an occasional hole in the weave to help insert rods (though this is rarely strictly necessary).
You can also buy a thing called a rapping iron if you like that is used to ‘beat down’ the weave to make it neater. Most of our customers just use the handle from an old hammer.
Willow needs to be soaked for a couple of hours before you weave it and you can either do this in the bath, in a pond or water butt or in the soaking bag that we provide with our kits. Full instructions are included and it's really simple.
Making your first basket
It is important to understand that no basket is ‘perfect’, willow is an unpredictable natural material and it’s worked by hand, not by machines. This means it doesn’t always want to conform to a perfectly straight or symmetrical shape. Your first basket may not be absolutely perfect but an important part of enjoying the experience is making your peace with that and recognising that you are learning a new skill.
At MYOWN2HANDS we strive for high standards, but we also believe that perfectionism is the enemy of creativity. Doubts about whether something will turn out perfect are enough to stop some people from getting started in the first place, and we think that’s a real shame. If you aren’t making mistakes you aren’t learning!
Which course/kit should I do?
If you want to take it slow, we suggest starting with our Fruit Basket Kit as its simpler and also takes less time to weave. The Shopping Basket Kit is also fine for beginners, but it takes slightly longer to complete and you will learn a larger variety of techniques. Once you receive the course if you feel you have opted for the wrong one, we will swap them over for you.