Basket 22: oval basket

 Basket 22: oval basket with twisted handle and 2-behind-4 border; Old French and steamed brown willow

While I still haven't mastered the round basket, I attempted my first oval. Not bad for a basket shape that wants to drive its maker crazy.

I've been avoiding the oval basket because it's difficult and confusing. Watching videos and reading about it did little to encourage me to tackle this shape. That's why my previous 21 baskets have all been what basketry artists call "roundwork".

I'm quite ceremonious when I select, sort, and soak my willow. Overthinking is part of who I am and it often means I procrastinate but it also means I linger on my favorite parts of a process, drawing them out as I imagine what the end product will be. I did this at length when I built a chicken coop from shipping crates. I call it "wandering around". It's the daydream phase of my process.

Is it weird that I like to smell my willow? I don't sniff it while I'm weaving, but during the planning phase and once the basket is complete, my nose is often in the rods. 

The foundation of a basket is called the "slath". In roundwork, it takes six rods of equal length to make the base — three intersect three. In ovalwork, it takes 10, with three longer rods intersecting seven shorter ones. There is a particular way you must space the rods in an oval slath and I cut my rods too short, which led to problems as I made the basket. 

I shouldn't have measured my rods to the trimmed size. Always leave extra to trim later.

As you weave the base, it tends to twist, so you must weave a certain way to counteract that twist. It's maddening. But I overcame that and was overall pleased with my first oval base.

Notice how the right side is a bit shorter than the left side. That caused the basket to become lopsided. 

Once the base is complete, the spars on the ends take two uprights each while the spars in the middle only take one. More confusion. Uprights form the structure of the basket's walls. In roudwork, there's 24, but in ovalwork, there's 34. That means when you apply a French rand weave to the wall, you  need 34 weavers. That's a lot of rods!

This photo from basket #19, a round basket, shows the French randing weave partially done. That's 24 uprights and 24 weavers. In ovalwork, add 10 more uprights and 10 more weavers and you get an idea of how tedious and confusing this basket was for me!

In the French randing weave, there's a step that always stumps me. The 23rd and 24th weavers need to be tucked under the first and second weavers. Then when you come back around to it, you have to somehow repeat the lift and tuck. 

I always get it wrong. 

In this ovalwork, I really got it wrong. You can especially see the gaps and inconsistency at the base of the left wall in the photo below.

I do really like this color combination. 

This basket has some shining moments too. Who doesn't love a twisted handle? It's actually my backup handle. I tried to improvise a wrapped handle and it went horribly. It's the first handle I ever cut out of my basket and I was about to throw this thing out the window. 

Another sore spot is the two-behind-four border that got away from me at the end. Notice how the border rods become unorganized and "reach" near the left side of this photo where the handle meets the basket. 

I really hate waste and cutting out the handle made me feel defeated. I try to salvage as much material as I can, but much of the trimmings get composted. I just imagine dollars going into the bin. All told, I've spent hundreds of dollars on willow rods and shipping from my source in New York. I need to find a local place to harvest willow.

Another shining moment is the steamed brown waling I added as an accent. Waling is used to keep the uprights properly spaced out before weaving in the walls. It also completes a wall, keeping everything in place. Normally, you just go around once, but I went around four times to really accent that color. I like how it turned out. 

I need to work on keeping the walls more even. The left side could have used some more outward angle and the right side could have used a little less. 

Here's another view of my favorite parts of this basket: that lovely twisted handle, the steamed brown waling, and the base, which, surprisingly, sits beautifully. There are some nice moments in the top border too. 

I think the slath looks pretty cool in this basket. Very beefy. Maybe one day I'll do some color play.

The basket was largely successful and I learned a lot doing this shape. While egg baskets will always have a special place in my heart, I'm going to keep trying to improve ovalwork. And working to master the fundamentals, like French randing and top borders. I also need to advance my knowledge of handles. 

The 1 and 2 o'clock positions make me sad, but everything else about this base is solid. Not bad for my first time. And most importantly, it sits wonderfully stable!