Basket 21: egg basket

  Basket 21: egg basket with twisted handle and 2-behind-4 border; buff willow

Surprise, surprise: another egg basket. What can I say? I love them. There are a few variations in this basket. 

I tried a window slath, that part in the middle of the base where the beginning six rods intersect. Normally, you keep the slath tight. I saw a basket with a spaced out slath that reminds me of a window, so I tried it with limited success. The rods kept sliding around as I weaved the base, which resulted in a deformed window. I'll have to keep trying. 

One problem I had was the buff willow kept drying out, so many of the rods broke and peeled. The buff and white willow has the bark removed, so it's very quick to soak -- only about 30 minutes, compared to two or three days. The downside is that it very quickly becomes brittle so you have to work fast and keep wetting the rods. While the basket is super solid since everything is packed pretty tightly, I worry it'll eventually begin to come apart. I'm probably not going to order as much of this kind of willow next time. 

Another variation is a much lower handle than I normally do, which attaches to the basket with the thin ends wrapping around uprights. While I really favor the look of the tall handles, they are prone to kinking or breaking under load. Overall, I like the way it came out. 

Finally, this basket uses a single weaver, not French randing, which has been my go-to for some time. That's because I forgot to soak waling rods, so I had to borrow six for the waling from my bundle of 24 weavers. I haven't done this kind of weaving since basket 15 and I learned French randing on basket 9. I cringe when I look at the bottom of that basket.

I know it's time to get outside of my comfort zone, so I'll see what I come up with next. Maybe an egg basket.