Market Basket

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I’m Martha May. I’m a basket maker. I also teach basket making for the plowshare. I’ve been making baskets for 11 years now. On this video I’m going to be teaching you how to make a simple market basket. This is a good beginner basket, and it teaches you the basics for a square basket.

Baskets were traditionally made from whatever materials grew in the area. Depending upon where you lived, you can use willow, white oak, grass, corn husks. Anything that would be flexible enough to wrap around your wrist you could use for a spoke. And anything that would be flexible enough to wrap around your finger could be used for a weaver.

Here in Texas we have lots of pine trees. So pine needles is what I’ve used the most for as far as locally harvested natural materials. Market baskets are found a lot in the Appalachian Mountains made out of white oak.

The main thing that distinguishes a market basket is it has to D handle. It’s a wooden handle that runs through the bottom of the basket and supports the basket, giving it extra strength. And then also, typically, they are a rectangle basket. It was designed to be a strong, sturdy basket to carry goods home from the market.

The tools that you’ll need are very simple tools you can get around your house. Some sort of scissors, basketry nippers, floral shears. A packing tool, you could also use a butter knife, or screwdriver, something of this sort. A spoke weight, or something weigh your spokes down while you weave your base. A tape measure. A pencil. And clothespins. You can order all these tools from us, or from any basketry supplier.

I’ll be using rattan to make them market basket today. Rattan is a natural fiber that is readily available. And it’s easy to learn basket making on. The materials that we’ll need will be 3/16 flat oval reed, 3/8 flat reed, 1/2 inch flat reed, 1/2 inch flat oval, 5/8, for your accent you’ll use 3/16 or 1/4 inch colored reed. We’ll use number 2 sea grass, and an 8 by 12 wooden D handle.

The parts of the basket are, here’s the spokes, right here, that make up the base of the basket. And we add in filler pieces which help fill in some of the holes. Then we’ve got the side weaving as the weavers. And then, here, of course, is the handle, which we wrap also. And then we lash on the rim.

The first step to making the basket is going to be to cut the spokes. For the spokes were going to use 5/8 inch flat rattan reed. And then for the filler pieces we’re going to use 1/2 inch flat reed. I’ll cut seven spokes that are 32 inches long. I like to cut several pieces at the same time, just to make it faster. Then we need 10 spokes at 28 inches long. Now I’m going to use 1/2 inch reed and cut six filler pieces at 20 inches long.

So we’ve got seven 32 inch pieces that are going to make up the length of the basket. We’ve got ten 28 inch pieces that are going to be for the width of the basket. And we’ve got the six 20 inch 1/2 inch filler pieces that are going to be for the filler on the base of the basket.

Next, we’re going to soak the spokes about five minutes in warm water to make the reed pliable. Now the reed has soaked for about five minutes. We’re going to take it out of the water. There’s a rough side and a smooth side to the reed.

You can tell which one’s the rough side because when you bend it over your finger the rough side is going to kind of get a little hairs on it. And we want to make sure we mark the rough side of the reed. And then as we make the basket, we’re going to make sure that the rough side stays on the inside of the basket.

We want to mark the center of each spoke so that we make sure we have the center of each spoke in the center of the basket. I’m going to start with the six filler pieces. Since they’re 20 inches long, I’ll put a light pencil mark at 10 inches. I like to line them all up at the same time. So I can just mark them all together.

Now I’m going to mark the 32 inches spokes at 16 inches. Again, I’m checking to make sure that the rough side of each piece of reed is facing up when I lay them down. Now I’ll mark the center of each 28 inch piece. I’m going to make sure I have the rough side up again.

Now the center is marked on all of these, and I’ll start the base. We’ll start by laying four of the 32 inch pieces out with the rough side up. We want all those center marks to be lined up. And I’m going to space them around an inch and a half apart. Next, I’ll place the handle directly on top of the marks and just make sure I have all the spokes spaced evenly.

And then I’ll take the three 32 inch spokes and place them in the center of each one of the ones that I have laid out. Next, I’m going to lay in the filler pieces. I’ll want to put one on each side of these spokes that I have on top of the handle. I’m going to line up the center marks of the filler pieces with the center of the handle.

Now that I have all the horizontal spokes laid out, I’m going to put this spoke weight on top of them. It’s going to weight one side down while I weave the other side. Now I’m going to weave in the 28 inch spokes. I want to weave them opposite of how I wove the handle. So the handles on top of the first spoke, so I’m going to go underneath it.

And then as I weave I’m going to treat the filler pieces as one piece, with the horizontal pieces that they’re beside. So I’ve gone under one spoke and then over three. And I’ve repeated that across the base of the basket. I want to line up the center mark on my spoke with the center spoke of the basket, here.

I’ll weave the next spoke in now. And I’ll weave it opposite of the way that I just wove it in. So I’ll be going over the first spoke, under the next three. And I’ll do that across the base of the basket. And then, again, I’ll make sure I have my center mark under the center spoke.

I want to weave the spokes in around half an inch apart. It doesn’t have to be real precise at this point, because we’re going to go back and square the base and make sure everything’s even once we get it all done.

I’ll weave the third piece in weaving opposite of the last piece I wove. So this is the fifth spoke. It’ll be the last one on this side. Now I’ll just line up that center mark again. Now you’ll want to repeat the same process on the other side of the handle.

Now that the base is woven we’re ready to square it. We want it to be 12 inches long. So I want to line the six up on the tape measure with the center of the handle. I’ll mark it here at the end of the tape measure, and then at 12 inches, with a light pencil mark. And I’ll do the same on the other side.

This is an 8 inch D handle. I want to square the basket to 7 3/4 inches wide so that my spokes are just a little bit in on the inside of the handle, so that when I weave my sides, the sides will be straight, instead of bowing out.

I’ll line up the 3 7/8 mark with the center mark of the reed. And I’ll mark it here at 7 3/4, and at the end of the tape measure. And I’ll do the same on the other side. Now I want to line the marks up here at the corner to make it square. And then I’ll just adjust all my spokes to make the spaces even.

Now that all my spaces are pretty even, I’m going to soak the base for a minute. I want to soak it just for a minute or so, just to make it pliable again, because it’s dried out some while I’ve woven the base. And the next thing I’ll do here is tuck the filler pieces and I want it to be plenty pliable when I bend them over.

Just make sure it’s all square still. Now I’m going to bend the filler pieces back on to the basket. I’m gong to make a little crease there at the edge. The soaking just helps them not to break as I bend over.

Next, I want to cut the filler pieces all at the far edge of the third spoke. To tuck them in I’m going to take my packing tool, I’m going to lift the third spoke up just a little bit, and I’ll tuck the filler piece underneath it. And I’ll continue doing that until all to filler pieces are tucked in.

So now we’ve got this side all tucked, and you shouldn’t be able to see the ends of any of the filler pieces from the top. We’ll tuck the filler pieces on the other side the same way. Now the base is finished and we can do what’s called upstaking the spokes. We’ll bend our spokes even with the edge of the base. And we’ll do that all the way around the basket.

As I bend them I’m going to mash a little bit with my thumb, just to put a little crease in it. You’ll hear a little creaking sound you bend them over, but since I soaked it for a minute, it’s not going to break when I bend it. And as I bend these over I still just want to make sure that everything’s lined up.

Now I’ve got the spokes all upstaked, and I’m going to soak the 3/8 inch reed to we the sides with. Along with the 3/8 inch flat reed I’m going to soak some colored pieces. This is the colored reed that we’ll use as an accent in the basket.

Now the reed has soaked and is pliable and we’ll take it and start weaving the sides. It doesn’t matter which side you start on, but you want to make sure you have four spokes before the corner of the basket, because once you’ve woven around, you’re going to overlap and you do not want that overlap to be around the corner.

I want to make sure I have the rough side to the inside of the basket. And I’ll weave this row opposite of the way I wove this last spoke, just weaving in and out. Then I’ll use clothespins to help the spokes stay up. I’ll continue to add clothespins as I weave to help the spokes stay up.

I like to have them close around the corners to help with the shaping of the corner. And I’ll treat this handle right here as another spoke and go under and over it, also. When I’m turning the corners, I don’t want to crease my reed, but I don’t want to leave extra slack where the reed will stick out, either.

Now that I’ve woven around the basket I want to overlap the ends for four spokes. I’m going to cut it off here at the end of four spokes. Then I’m going to tuck this reed here behind my other weaving. When I started the weaving here I started on the inside of the spoke, so when I overlap this I want to tuck it behind where both of my ends are going to be hidden. If I put it on the front then my ends would show on the outside. So I want to make sure I have it behind so that they’re both hidden.

Now I’m going to put a clothespin on it, just to hold that joined together. And as I continue to weave the rows I’ll be able to take the clothespins off, and the weaving will be what keeps it in place. You’ll notice that the weaving is not all the way down to the base right now, but try and get it as close as you can, and then as you weave more rows you’ll be able to pack it down better.

To start the second row I’ll get another piece of 3/8. You want to start the second row in a different place then you started the first row. You can start anywhere, except you don’t want your overlap to be in the same place as the first row, or you don’t want to be around the corner, either. I like to just go a few spokes over and just alternate each row starting in a different place on the basket.

I’m going to weave the second row in and out, opposite of how I wove the first row. If I went over a spoke in the first row I want to go behind it in the second row. As I get to the corner here, I want to give special attention to make sure that it stays nice and square. I don’t want to square it too much, where there’s a crease, but I want it to be in nice square corner.

I’m ready to overlap the second row now. I started this row on the outside, so I’m just going to we over four spokes. I’ll cut it off here at the edge of four spokes, and I’ll tuck that in behind here. Again, it’s tucked over four spokes where you can’t see either end if the spokes are stood upright.

Now that I’ve finished the second row, I want to pack it down and mash it a little bit with my fingers. You want to pack it where the bottom row is right next to the base, and then you want the following row to be tight against each other.

To weave the third I want to start it in a different place then where I did the second row. And I’ll just weave in and out making this row opposite the last row. Here at the corner, I want to give special attention to it that it doesn’t get too square, but where it’s not too rounded, either. I don’t want there to be a crease. I want it to be nice and square.

I’ve woven the third row, and now I’m cutting it at the far edge of the fourth spoke. Now I’ll tuck it behind the weaving. So here’s where my joint is, and both of my ends are hidden behind the spokes. Now that I’ve woven the first three rows, I want to weave an accent row. I’m going to run the colored reed through a paper towel to remove any excess dye, and then I’ll weave it in just like I wove the previous row.

So when I’m finishing the colored row I want to overlap it just like I did the previous ones, or over four spokes where both ends are hidden. You can put your accent rows anyway that you like. I’ve chosen to weave three rows of natural, and then I’m going to weave three rows of color.

Now that I’ve woven three rows of color, I’m going to go back and we some natural. I want to continue to check the reed as I we and make sure that I always have the rough side to the inside of the basket. Now the sides are woven and we’ve got three of natural, three rows of colored accent, seven rows of natural, three more rows of accent, and then three rows of natural.

I’m just going to take my fingers here and kind of square up the corners a bit. And now I’ll soak the tops of the spokes so that I can tuck them over for the rim. One thing that you do want to watch out for as you’re soaking your whole basket, is the bottom of the deep handle is put together with a joint, as well as with glue, and you don’t want that to get too wet. It won’t hurt it to get a little wet, but you don’t want it to soak in water very long.

You’ll notice here that we’ve got some spokes that are on the inside the basket, and then we’ve got others that are on the outside the basket. We want to take, it will be every other spoke where we want to take the spokes that are on the outside of the basket and fold them towards inside the basket. So we’ll be folding down every other spoke, and we’ll just a little crease in the top of it.

It’s just like when you upstaked the base. You’ll hear a little crease sound, but if you soaked it it’s not going to crack. Now we’re going to take and mark the spokes that we’ve bent over at the bottom of the third row from the top.

So now that I marked all the spokes at the bottom of the third row, I’m going to cut the reed off on those marks. So now we’ve got all the spokes cut on the marks that we made, and we’re going to tuck them in now. So I’m just using the packing tool, still, to lift up the third row. And I tuck the cut spoke down into the third row.

And the ends should not show at the bottom. It should make it all hidden. And what this does, is it makes it where, once you have the rim on your basket, it’s going to stay on. Because you’re going to lash through all these holes, right here at the bottom of this top row. And if you don’t have these tucked in good, your whole rim will come off. But if you tuck them in like this you should not worry about your rim coming off. Your basket ought to hold together very well.

Now that I’ve got all the spokes tucked in I’m just going to adjust them all and make sure they’re all straight. Then I’m going to cut the spokes that are sticking up off. A lot of people like to cut them off first, and get them out of the way. And that’s fine, but if you cut off the wrong spokes then you’ll ruin your basket. So I make it a practice while I’m doing it, to cut off the spokes last. And that way I know I haven’t cut off the wrong ones.

So now we’ll soak some 3/16 flat oval reed to wrap the handle with, along with a small piece of color for an accent through the handle. I like to choose one the longest pieces I can get of the 3/16 reed, because we’re going to have to wrap the whole handle with it. Most likely we’ll have to splice. But the longer pieces you get the less you’ll have to splice.

So when our reed’s soaked for about five minutes, we’ll take it and we’re going to tuck it in, here on the inside of the handle. And tuck it here behind the first two of the 3/8 reed. And we’re going to stick it in with the flat side up. And then we’ll turn it over upon itself, where the oval side is up now.

On the front side I’m going to take this soaked piece of colored reed and stick it under the first row of weaving. Then I’ll begin to wrap going under and over this row of color. I’ve gone over it. To go behind it I’m just going to push it to the front a little bit, and slide this row behind.

I want to keep my rows right next to each other, where there’s no space in between them. And I want to keep it nice and tight right around the handle. I’ll continue wrapping until my piece runs out. Or if I get to the other side of the handle first, then I won’t have to splice.

Wrapping the handle is not a necessary part to the basket, it’s just a decorative accent. And it makes it a little more comfortable to use the handle. You can just sand the handle and just leave it a wooden handle. You could would burn a vine, or something like that on it, if you wanted.

And there’s also lots of different patterns that you could weave. I’m just going under and over this colored strap. But you could we any kind of design you like on it. Now that our reed is getting short here, I’m going to need to get a new piece, so that I can finish wrapping the handle. I can end it off on the front or the back of the handle. And if I end it here on the front, then I can hide it under this blue piece of accent reed.

What I’ll do is I’ll fold it over back onto itself, and make this stick down. I’ll leave about an inch or so tail. I’ll take a new piece that I’ve soaked for about five minutes. I’ll take my packing tool and stick it up under the wrapping that I’ve already done.

I’ll stick my piece of reed, with oval side toward the handle, up in that hole. Then I’m going to bend it over where the oval side is up now. I’m going to wrap over these ends. Now I’m going to continue to wrap. And both of my ends from my splice are hidden under this blue piece where you cannot see them.

I’m just going to weave over this little tail that’s hanging down here. I’m going to continue to wrap this handle here until I get to where the wrapping is even with the top row of weaving. Now that we’re done wrapping the handle, I’m going to take this around to the back.

So I’m going to fold this here, where the tail is now sticking down. So I’m going to cut this now at the bottom of the third row. So now I’m going to tuck this tail behind the top two rows on this side of the handle. To end this little blue accent piece, I’m going to cut it. So now I’ll tuck the tail under the second row of weaving.

Now that we’ve got the handle wrapped, we’re going to use 1/2 inch flat oval for the rim. So we’re going to take that and we’re going to soak it for about five minutes. So we’ll also soak a piece of 3/16 flat oval to lash the rim with.

While that soaks, we’ll cut a peace the sea grass. We want it to be as big as the rim, and then to overlap about three or four inches. And we’ll cut it off there. This is going to be for filler at the top of the rim.

Now that the 1/2 inch flat oval has soaked for about five minutes we want to take it, and we’ll wrap once around the outside of the basket. I want to measure it, if I want it to overlap at the end for about three inches. And I want to be precise on how big this is, because I’m going to plane where it overlaps.

So I want to pin this on here. I’m going to overlap it about three inches. I’m going to mark it here, at the ends of the reed, and within this area here, I’m going to plane it. So where it’s overlapped it’s just one thickness.

So now this piece is for the outside. I’m going to do another one just like it for the inside. So I want to overlap this inside piece about three inches also. And I’ll mark it it where it overlaps here. So now we’ve cut both the inside and outside rims and we want to plane it where it’s going to overlap.

One side I’m planning on the flat side, and then this side I’m going to plane on the oval side. So starting at my mark here, I’ve planed it down to half of its thickness. I can tell which one is the outside one, because it’s going to be the longest one.

So I’m going to take it, I’m going to pin it to the outside of the basket. And I want to start here with the end that I’ve planed on the oval side. I’m going to take the end here, and I’m going to round it and just give it a nice little curve. I’m going to pin it over where it overlaps here.

And so now you can’t see anywhere that I’ve planed. It’s all covered up. Now I’ll pin the inside rim on. Again, I want to make sure that I start with the side that I’ve planed on the oval side. I like to pin mine on the same side of the basket, and that way, if I’ve got it pinned on the same side, I can start my lashing after my spices here. And then when I lash around, all my extra slack is going to go into my splices.

I’ll just lift these clothespins up here and stick the reed in. And once again, I’ll take this little end and curve it here. So now we’ve got it overlapped to where the two planed pieces are pretty much equal with the regular side of the half inch flat oval. So I’ll put a pin to hold that together there.

Next I’ll take the sea grass that I cut earlier, I’m going to thread it through these clothes pins here. And what this does is it just covers up the tops of these spokes that are bent down, and gives it a nice finish. I usually put the sea grass where it goes over the outside of the handle. And I’ll just leave these two tails sticking out here. And once I’ve lashed it, then we’ll cut them off.

So I’ve got the two splices where I’ve spliced my rim, right here. I’m going to start my lashing over here, so that when I’ve lashed around the basket, any extra slack from the rim is going to go into these two splices and I have.

To start the lashing, take the 3/16 flat oval reed, I’m going to stick it up between the outside wall of the basket and the outside rim here. I’m going to stick up a little tail. I’m going to bend it over about half an inch. I’m going to tuck it down onto the inside of the basket, where it just locks over their rim.

I’m going to lash between every spoke of the basket. I’ll go in between the bottom of the rim and this top row of weaving here. Just stick my lasher through. I personally like to go ahead and loop one more lash around before I pull the first one through. That way I don’t have to straighten out the whole piece again. And then I’ll go back and pull the first one tight.

I’ll just continue lashing using this packing tool to space the reed apart. The rim adds a lot of strength to your basket. So I like to make sure it’s nice and tight when I pull these lashers. So I’m just running it here, using my packing tool to make a little place where I can stick the reed through, and lashing it between every spoke.

I want to keep the sea grass right there on top where it covers up the tops of the spokes. As I get to the clothespins I’ll go ahead and take them off. Continue lashing here. I like to make an x when I get to my handle. So I’m going to go ahead and I’ll lash over the handle just like I’m going to make a regular lash, but at that point I’m going to go ahead and pull this all the way through and pull it tight.

Now I’ll go back over the handle making an x over it. And I’ll stick to reed back through the same hole that I came through. Then I’ll continue lashing on the other side. This is the rim that I do put on most baskets. It’s more of a traditional rim. There are other ways to do a rim, such as a braided rim. But this is a very strong, sturdy rim, and it’s what I like to put on most of my baskets.

Now that I’ve gotten to where the ends of sea grass are, I’m going to take one piece and just let it stick out. And I’ll go ahead and lay the other piece down and lash over it. And then once I have finished the lashing, then I’ll go back and trim up the sea grass. As I lash over where I have a splice, I’m just going to hold it with my fingers to make sure it stays all tight while I lash it.

And again, as I get to where the handle is here, I’m going to go ahead and lash over the handle, and pull that tight. Then I’ll go back over it making an x and coming back through the same hole that my reed is coming from. And I’ll pull that nice and tight.

My sea grass is a little bit loose, here so I’m just going to take it and I’m going to pull it down here and tighten it up. And get it to fit just right. If your reed starts getting short here, to end it off you’ll tuck it up between the outside your basket and then outside the rim.

I’ll pull that nice and tight. And then you’ll tuck it back down on the inside the basket, between the inside of the basket and the inside of the rim. Just pull that tight here. And now I’ll cut it off here on the inside of the basket.

So now I’ll get another piece of soaked 3/16 reed. I’m gong to start it the same way I started the first piece. I’ll stick it up in between outside the basket and the inside of this outside rim. I’m going to tuck it over about half an inch and let it loop over the wall of the basket. And now I’ll continue lashing.

So now I’ve come to the end of my lashing, and I want to stick my last lasher back through to where my reed was first stuck under. Normally, when you’re beginning to make baskets you won’t be able to pull the lashing as tight as you like it the first time. So you’ll want to go back and tighten the whole rim of your basket up. Stick your packing tool under your loop and just kind of give it a tug with your thumb. Pull it tight and work the slack to the end of the reed and then pull it tight.

To end it off, you want to stick your packing tool down between the outside of the basket and this outside flat oval reed here. You’ll stick your lashing up through that gap. Pull it real tight. And next, you’ll stick your tool and lift up the sea grass and then stick it through to the inside of the basket between the inside wall and the inside of the inside rim.

I like to cut, if I have a long still, cut it off. Then stick it down in that hole. And pull that nice and tight. Then clip it off at the bottom on the rim. To finish off the sea grass here I like to overlap it, like between two lashing pieces. Cut it off there and use the packing tool to stick it under the lasher. Just hide the end under that lasher. And work it under there, where the end is all hidden.

So now that you have your rim finished, I like to take the corners and apply some pressure with my thumbs to give it the shape that I like. Just a nice square shape. And I like to go back and clip off all these little hairs that the reed has made. Just take a pair of scissors and clip them all off. So we want to continue snipping until you get all the hairs off. So now you have your finished basket. From here you could stain it or dye it, or you could leave it natural.

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