Читать книгу Basket Essentials: Rib Basket Weaving - Lora S. Irish - Страница 12

The art of basketry—whether rib, woven reed, or willow—is not an exacting craft. It is a back-porch, natural-materials, intuitive art form that has been passed down from one generation to the next. Basket shapes, sizes, uses, materials, terminology, and weaving patterns can change dramatically from one region of the world to the next. Seldom does even the most experienced basket maker create two identically sized designs, and often you will discover that your basket can be classified under several different names or categories of shape (more on this on page).

Unlike knitting, where a rigid set of stitches must be made to create a specific pattern, or woodworking, where exact measurements must be made to ensure a tight, accurate fit between pieces, in basketry, basket makers must be ready to adjust and alter their work with each new step to compensate for changes in how deeply a spoke can be inserted, the tension of a weave, the natural weaving abilities of a material, the dampness of the weaving material, and the weaving pattern being used.

As an example, you will discover that the reed size charts on page give approximate sizes only. Reed is a key material in basket making, but the actual size or measurement of a reed can vary because of several factors:

 Was the reed originally cut to imperial (US) or metric measurements? What might have been cut to a ⅜" width using imperial measurements will measure 9.525mm in metric. If it was cut using metric measurements, it may have originally measured 9.5mm, which would be equivalent to 0.374016 inches—not a natural number to someone using the US system. Because these conversion measurements are far too exacting to be of any real use to the basket maker, you will discover that a ⅜" reed will be noted as approximately 9.5mm—rounded up or down to the nearest size.

 Was the reed originally cut by the manufacturer slightly damp or bone dry? If the reed was cut damp to a 2mm size, it may only measure 1.75mm after it loses its natural moisture content, yet it may measure 2.25mm after it has been soaked in water in preparation for use.

 Has the reed been stored in an open-air environment where it can absorb humidity, or has it been stored in a closed, dry bag? Reed absorbs the moisture from the air and will swell to a slightly larger size if stored in open air than it would if stored dry.

As you can see, reed sizes are a great example of how imprecision is a natural part of basket making. But they are just one example of many!

Here’s another: While I will provide measurements for your spokes throughout the projects and lessons in this book, these measurements reflect my finished, adjusted sizes that fit my basket using my particular round reed size. To create that finished basket size, I cut my spokes slightly (about ⅜" to ½" [1 to 1.3cm]) longer than what I expected to need. Then I cut them to a tapered point so they could be inserted into the ear or previous weaving patterns. In the photo on page, you can see me eyeballing a spoke and getting ready to cut it to size.

Cut spokes to size after holding them up against your basket.

After the new spoke has been inserted, I visually check its placement against the curved profile of the spokes that have already been added to the basket frame. In the photo at top right, you can see that the spoke that I am holding is placed too deeply into the previous weaving work to conform with the desired profile curve of the basket frame.

By adjusting the placement of that spoke, pulling it out slightly from the weaving pattern, I can bring it out to the curve of the desired profile, as shown in the photo at bottom right. You may need to adjust a spoke several times during the weaving process.

All of this imprecision, estimation, and adjustment on the fly are actually a great advantage to this craft: you, the basket maker, need not worry about extremely accurate measurements, substituting one reed size for another, or how many rows it takes to fill one area of your basket. If you use a fatter round reed spoke than the one I use, or if your spoke needs to be ½" (1.3cm) longer than mine, your basket will still be a delightful, unique, and functional masterpiece!

Check spoke placement after the spokes are inserted.Once the shape looks right, keep weaving!