Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Midelino Harvest Moon Basket
- 30 October 2012
- click to send Christine a smile
This is a great flat and open basket to take outside when “harvesting” your fall leaves, pods and flowers. Who knows, you might even find a ghost pumpkin or three…
And that is, of course the nicest part of making your own baskets- you never have to “make do”. This basket perfectly matches the tiny white pumpkins but it would also look rather fun filled with mushrooms…
For the frame of the basket you will need five Midelino cane coils. Two of the sections will be bound to shape the handle and the left-over bits of the other three will be used to weave the bottom basket section.
Match the ends of two coils and secure with glue.
Follow the natural curve of the coils to shape a half moon. Cut the coils shorter so that they meet neatly and secure those ends with wood glue
Match the next coil, cut it shorter and glue on both ends
This is the basic crescent or half moon shape of the basket. The next two pieces will now extend over this shape to create the handles
Fold a long coil in half to find the middle point. Do not fold flat.
Match this middle point of the coil to the middle of the basket pieces
Follow the shape of the basket so that the longer coil pieces extend over the basket and glue the coil to the previous three sections. Glue the other side in the same way
Measure the last cane coil in the same way.
Glue the coil to the other side to cross the first long section.
Fold the long dangling coils in and over the basket.
Stack the coils and glue the middle point of the handle. Cut any coils shorter to make it more manageable
Start to weave the bottom of the basket.
Add another coil, first on the one side of the first coil and then on the other side working your way out.
Weaving the bottom of the cane coil basket.
Keep weaving in strips.
Cover the entire base of the basket
Adjust all the coils for a neat weaving pattern
Soak the shorter left over bits of Midelino Cane Coils in warm water to make it more pliable
Wrap the soaked coil around the glue connection point where the handle and the basket meet.
Press the end into the wrap.
Pour a bit of glue into the wrapped section and secure it with a small butterfly hair clip to hold it in place while the glue dries. See Tutorial below on how I use hair clips in design work
Wrap another wet coil around the handle on the glued spot and secure with a tiny hair clip
To make a bow on top of the handle:
Gently bend two of the handle coils over and tuck it back into the handle. Secure the loops in place with glue and cut the other two ends short as you would ribbon ends
Secure all the loose ends with glue and clip it tightly to dry flat
Weave in three more coils at the side for a decorative pattern
Let the glue dry completely before removing the clips.
Cut the side coils.
And the bottom of the basket.
Midelino cane coil flat harvest basket ready to design with
Midelino cane coil harvest basket.
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Tutorials
For this tutorial I focus on a simple weave pattern that does not require you to soften or prepare the leaves to be more durable or flexible. This is the starting point in...
Butterfly hair clips are the perfect little claws to help you hold tiny items in place while you wait for glue to dry
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