There is a round basket in Jon Ridgeon’s book, Willow Craft: 10 Simple Projects, that inspired me to try different shapes too.  To keep with the theme of Clarksburg has h’ART, I made a heart-shaped basket using the same technique. Notice the lovely red contrasting dogwood woven in with the willow.  These baskets turned out somewhat rustic as I only had dogwood stakes with me at my parents’ when I wove these.  Because you start with a wood base instead of weaving one, this is a great way to introduce basket weaving in just a couple of hours, so I am teaching this project in the morning workshop on February 9.

1. Start with wood base.

2. Poke stakes through holes.

3. Lock in butts of stakes.

4. Secure stakes with waling.

5. Weave sides. Add waling on top.

6. Create border with stakes. Clip ends.