My finger tips are aching, but I couldn’t resist doing something with the 18″ pieces of wires left over from electrical work today! My favourite gauge of wire came from heavier-duty twisted wires that once unraveled made the finer base weavers you see. When that ran out I used thicker untwisted strands up the sides. The thickest gauge for the stakes was too thick to braid a border, so I opted for the 3-Behind border instead.

See the finer gauge wire for the base. I love the copper colour!

Here is an adapted approach to using wire that does not spring or create tension like willow does.  Photos to follow…

Wire Materials

1. Gather your wire. I untwisted Ethernet  (CAT 6) wire cut-offs for the green/white twisted wires, used CAT 5 for thinner weavers to start the base, and used 18-gauge white-coated wire from an old power cord.
2. Colour your wire if needed.  To match my son’s business logo I used a permanent Sharpie pen to colour the white wire.

Stakes

1. Cut base stakes long so that they can become the side stakes later (to minimize sharp cut ends in the basket.
2. Twist 2 wires together for the base stakes to provide firmness. This also means you will have double the side stakes ready to go when you weave the sides.

Chase-weave Base

1. Untwist double wires slightly & feed the perpendicular bottom stakes through.
2. Use your thinnest wire to begin base chase weave. I untwisted the white/green Ethernet wire to start by using the 2 strands separately.
3. Chase weave as usual.
4. Bend stakes up & untwist the double wires.
5. Add a 3-rod wale.
   

   After the base was woven, I removed the square start to reveal and interesting pattern.

   

   Traditional start to round basket. Notice stake twisted wires were untwisted in the middle to slide the perpendicular stakes through.

French-randing Sides

1. Decide how high up your sides will go. At that point on each side stake, twist a new wire around it downward, so that a long weaver now points down.
2. Weave by French randing as usual.  The wire rows spring up but are easy to keep pushing down  to tighten the final weave once at the top of the sides.

Border

1. At the top of the sides, add a 3-rod wale or don’t. Both works due to the sturdiness of the wire.
2. If you choose a track border, finish the end on the inside of the basket so they don’t poke out on outside edge.
3. If you choose a braided border, the end will finish hiding under the braided lip.
4. In either case, use needle-nose pliers to tug the ends before cutting.
   

   Border example

   

   Braided border

On the screen is my son’s business website.

Part 2 of making baskets in my son’s business colours

This time I grabbed the power cable off the old air compressor to use its white coated wire to make a purple one (with a Sharpie pen).  Unfortunately it was a thicker wire (as a compressor is a heavy duty sort of kit!), so I found the unmatched diameters of the wires caused some frustration. I wove and UNwove the sides several times before getting a tight enough weave.  I then tried one more time with a thinner power wire and documented the tips and steps I have learned along the way. I use the same process as willow baskets but have to alter some techniques to suit the wire.  Wire is lovely at bending and staying that way but it cannot spring back the way willow can.  Sometimes you want that natural tension to keep ends in place.  Also, wire ends can be sharp when clipped so I have adapted some techniques to minimize the number of ends in contrast to using willow.

3 kinds of wires

1. In the centre of the base is CAT 5 green & white Ethernet wire that has been untwisted into two separate strands. This was the thinnest, so I could get a tight weave at the start.
2. Twisted green & white CAT 6 Ethernet wire is used next to finishe the base and weave up the sides.  I also used it for the stakes.
3. For the purple accent, white 18-gauge wire salvaged from an old power cord was coloured purple with a Sharpie. Even though it is a permanent marker, it could use a little touching up because you rub against it quite a bit when weaving.

Upside-down close up of three kinds of wires.