Double Curled Easter Basket Part 2

Making the base:

make sure your spokes are wet, lay the longest reed which will be the handle down and spiral out the rest of the 5 spokes with 3 pencil marks on them matching them on the center line and soak a long piece of #2 round reed.

 you want to bend the #2 round reed in half but make sure you keep one end longer then the other one.

 Wait!! before you bend it in half, take a pliers and gum it well.

 why? this way, when you bend it in half it won't break.

see! it works!

now take the no2 and place the bent part on the handle's line that is showing and start to twine around the pencil lines.

 take the left strand

 put it behind the spokes to the right of the right strand.

 continue twining

for 10 rows












stop after you twine the very first spoke you twined (in this case would be the handle) then you add on the 2ndary spokes.  you lay it on top matching at the center line and twine like the spoke was there from the start.
Continue twining until the base is 9" wide.

Oh oh! run out of #2 round reed!! simple fix! just place the wet new reed in the next place where the old reed was supposed to go and pretend they are connected and continue to twine.

keep measuring ! not quite there yet!

Finally its 9" wide.

 Now what? well cut the long ends to make it easier to finish off the base.

 Some people would leave it as is, bend it and push through the spoke, etc but I like to just tuck it in next to it.  I personally like to take the bottom strand and tuck it in like the picture first and pull through.

like this

 then take the  top strand and push it through next to the bottom strand you just pushed through.

 like this

Then cut it to the length you like.

 What about the ends from when you added the reed? again some people would cut it shorter and let it lay there, some will bed it and tuck it down the spoke, I again like to tuck it in next to it and cut it short.

just like this.  Its what ever you want to do and how you want your basket's base to look like.

 You'll get a beautiful round flat base, now spray down the base well front and back especially where you'll be bending the spokes to upset them.

 Don't be afraid of breaking the reed, as long as you sprayed it down well and give it few min to penetrate the reed it won't break off.

 bend it straight and matching the other side of the spoke to make sure its straight.

 now you are ready to start weaving the side of the basket.











We will continue with weaving the side of the basket in few days.  Make sure you come back!