Planning basket 15: flower harvester

After not having made a basket in more than a year, I'm ready to resume learning basketry. My next basket will be a flower harvester, which I imagine to be a wide base with a shallow open wall and a large round twisted handle. Something like basket #6, but symmetrical.

I've picked the rods and will begin soaking them later this week so that I'll be ready to weave this weekend.

From left, buff willow for the slath; steamed brown willow for the waling; steamed brown willow for the uprights; and a mix of mostly buff willow and some steamed brown willow for the weavers. 

I have given away all but two of the baskets I've made. My neighbors across the street have a nice rose garden and I frequently see them harvesting, then carefully avoiding the thorns as they take them inside. 

For this basket, I'll experiment with bicolor weavers to see how a random pattern appears with a single weaver stroke. It's been so long since I've made a basket that I'm going to avoid French randing for now just to make it easier on myself as I get back into it.

Early last year, I spotted 5-foot bundles of willow at an Ikea and bought 3 thinking I'd be able to make some larger baskets. Unfortunately, these turned out not to be suitable for weaving -- they simply would not rehydrate enough to bend at a 90° angle. Once I got past about 45°, they'd snap, no matter how long I soaked them. 

This willow also stank. 

I was able to make a base but some of the weavers and a few of the slath arms cracked. The uprights simply broke. It reminded me of working with red osier dogwood, which only seems suitable for waling.

Pity this willow won't work for basketry, the color is lovely.

This Ikea willow is processed some kind of way that makes it impossible to weave with so I gave it away on my neighborhood Buy Nothing group. It will now be used for its intended purpose, as decorative willows standing in a corner.