spiral plait cane-toppers

Plaiting is one of my favourite basketry techniques. These spiral plait cones are simple and quick to make from lots of different woody materials.  I made these from  willow but you could use dogwood, vines or any garden prunings that are flexible enough to wrap around your wrist without snapping.  They make perfect cane-toppers to pop on the end of bamboo plant supports.  Useful if you don't want to risk poking your eyes out when weeding the beds!

I've also used them or given them to friends as festive decorations - a crafty, green, DIY alternative to shop-bought Christmas decorations.  You just need to tie on a loop of raffia or string to hang them on a tree or in the home.

Daniel Dohgerty, who was a fellow student on my Creative Basketry course in 2001, showed me how to make them in a simple cardboard jig - a great technique if you want to get children involved. Thanks Daniel, where are you now I wonder?  Last seen following your heart to Australia to make baskets and babies.

BASKETRY FROM AND FOR YOUR GARDEN

Now that I've finished writing and working on 'Practical Basketry Techniques', co-authored with artist Shane Waltener and due out February 16th 2012, I've decided to share my passion for basketry and gardening more widely in this blog.

Over the coming weeks I'll be showing and and writing about some of the exciting basketry you can make from and for your garden - however small a plot you might have.

Don't worry if you don't have a garden of your own.  For many years I didn't either.  I lived in a tiny, fouth floor flat in central London without even so much as a balcony, but that didn't stop me foraging for materials in the urban hedgerow (see my other blog urban-hedgerow-basketry.blogspot.com), begging materials from friends' and neighbours' gardens and allotments or growing basketry plants in pots on my window sills.

Now I've got a small garden of my own in sunny Catford in south-east London and I've packed it with grow-your-own basketry materials that I can harvest at different times of year.  There's barely a week goes by that I can't step outside and find something to keep my itchy basketmaking fingers busy.  Pruning, trimming and tidying the garden becomes a joy not a chore as I think of all I can make from what others might see as green waste.

Here's a taster of some of the basketry I've made from and for my garden or for green-fingered friends over the years.  Why not take a look at 'Practical Basketry Techniques' when it comes out for step-by-step instructions on how to make similar projects.  It's creative, cheap and fun.  Do keep me posted on what you've grown or made, I'd love to hear about you and your basketry garden.

In my back garden a giant willow sphere made from bright yellow Salix viminalis, gathered from a friend's allotment, shone in the spring sunshine in 2008.

Until an unseasonal snowfall turned it into a giant snowball!!

A suspended willow ball makes a decorative feature in a seaside garden in Brighton.  It serves a practical purpose too. Friends Mark and Anna are keen bird-watchers and they've noticed how small birds take food from bird-feeders into the ball to enjoy a leisurely snack safe from predators.