Wicker

I've been having quite a lot of fun with this so far. Some people weave with waxen linen thread stuff, some with wire. At the moment I am just using raffia (bits of dried straw or something) and toothpicks.

For baskets I make a round base from either thick cardboard or balsa, then I make holes and insert toothpicks. The only thing to remember here is that there should always be an uneven number of toothpicks otherwise you won't be able to weave properly. Oh and try to make them evenly spaced around your base.

I use a load of Aleens white tacky glue stuff (I use that for everything) and make sure they are really firmly stuck down. I want my baskets to get a little wider around the outside lip so I find if I stick a little plant pot or something that just fits inside the ring of toothpicks, this makes them bend outwards a little and gives me that wider lip (this also stops the tension of my weaving from getting too tight and pulling the toothpicks closer together.

So once everything is all stuck down I get a strand of raffia and tie to one of the toothpicks, leaving the loose end sticking out to be cut off later, and start to weave. Nothing fancy here just under over under over. Shove it down at intervals so everything is nice and tight and once you get to the height you want your basket tie off the raffia and smear some glue around the top to fix it all in place. You might need to trim off any excess toothpicks, and don't forget to cut off the loose ends of the raffia and you are just about done.

If you are using natural raffia you end up with a nice yellow colored basket, but I prefer a darker, scruffy, worn brown, so I mix brown acrylic (raw sienna?) with a bit of glue to thicken it, paint that all over the baskets and then rub it off again with my fingers (getting very messy in the process). This leaves a thin stain of colour over the bulk of the baskets and darker pools of colour in the nooks and crannies, which is the effect I'm after.

Let it dry, give it a quick squirt with satin varnish and you're done. A cute basket. They also make quite sweet little tables turned upside down.