Do you like old crafting techniques?
I love them! I have many interesting techniques on my Creative to do list and I truly hope I will try them all :)
By old crafting technique I mean weaving, bobbin lace, wood carving, basket weaving, pottery, and so on.
Basket weaving was on my Creative to do list but I didn‘t know about it 😁 until I have found rattan - pedigrohr and ordered it.
My Mom has a beautiful baskets made from willow, I have always admired them. I used to have one as a kid, and we used them for Easter Celebrations. In Slovakia we are Christening food on Easter Sunday, super early in the morning.
Like I said, I have found a rattan/ Pedigrohr, I have ordered it with round base for a basket (I thought I will need the base but I didn’t).
Let me tell you, it was the best project I have done in a long time... I loved it!!! My head is full of ideas how can I use this technique in a different projects and what patterns I should try next...
Let‘s get to work :) 
What we need:
- Rattan/ Pedigrohr (0.25mm)
- Ruller / Measuring tape
- Pliers
- bucket with water and spray with water
- Patience
- Day off
- cup of tea
- good music :)
Step one- Do not open that bunch of Rattan. Take out piece by piece at the time.
There are short and long ones. We need to separate them. Longest pieces are needed for weaving and shorter are needed for the body structure (also depends on a size, for small basket 1m length, for big basket 2m). 
After separating all pieces into a groups, we will take 32 pieces for basked corp 2m long. They need to be placed into a bucket of warm water for 10-15 minutes (it depends also on how wide are the pieces, if the width is more than 2.25mm bath has to be longer, they have to be super flexible fort work).
After 15 minutes take all 32 pieces out, dry them into a towel (old towel).
Fold them in a half and make 8 x 4 groups.
Once group of 8x4 is ready, we can start weaving.
Remember, Rattan has to be kept in a water, each time one goes out, new piece goes in.
Now weaving can begin 🤓 Longer piece of Rattan will be intertwined into 8x4 base. We will start in a first raw of horizontal section, we go from right to the left. Longer part will turn around first vertical section and we start with weaving. It is important to weave it kind of inside to make sure base is strong.
We will do 4 circles one direction and 4 opposite direction. Afterwards we divide rattan into smaller groups of 2, and we continue weaving. 
We will be using measuring tape to check on size of our basket.
When one piece, which we are using for weaving ends, take a new one.
Insert it behind piece, where you have ended and continue weaving. 
Once we have base for basket of a size we wanted, we can cut longer pieces with cutters.
Like this. 
Once the base is finished we will use water and spray properly edge. It has to be properly wet because we will be forming sides of basket. 
If rattan is not wet enough it will break. 
Now we start building basket sides 🤩
We start with 3 pieces of Rattan. This will make bottom edges stronger. It’s kind of like making a Braid around some construction😃 We make 3 rows this way and then you go kind of back to finish it and we will continue only with 2 rattan twigs.
Let’s built basket sides. Sides are make only with 2 rattan twigs. Same way as we did a bottom. 
We will be using measuring tape to check how high walls we want. 
It is very relaxing to play with Rattan. It needs a bit of patience but once you get it you will love it😍
Time to start closing sides.
We will again use water and spray properly edges and rest of Rattan twigs. We will add 3 Rattan pieces and do same thing as we did at the bottom edges.
Now we close Rattan parts which are coming from side.
We go first with a left twig from group of two. So take it and fold it to the right, between next group of two. Then take the right twig and fold it to the right, between 2 groups of two. Then take another one and continue until you get to the last piece.
Afterwords we will use cutters and clean edges, cut longer ends.
Remember: you need at least 10-15cm long rattan twigs for closing top edge.
As a handle we can make a Braid and sew it on basket with strong thread.
Tadaaaaa 🤩
Basket weaving is absolutely beautiful technique! I have enjoyed it a lot!
It was hard though to find a proper video to understand the technique and see all steps needed, that is also why there are not all steps pictured but this isn’t my last tutorial for basket weaving.
I definitely want to try to make a basket with a handle that is build in a body and maybe even from a willow twigs which is proper material for basket weaving🤓🙌🏻
I hope you had fun reading this tutorial🙌🏻
Let’s meet in a creative dimension!
With love
Gabriela- ar design ATELIER