Within minutes of finishing the basket Toulouse squished in for a nap.
So excited after my workshop at Lakeshore Willows (see Catalan base post), I couldn’t wait to find willow to weave back home. Instead I searched our Dogwood for young branchless stems and launched into my first basket from Jon Ridgeon’s book Willow Basketry: A How-to Guide. This is his first project in the book called “Your First Basket”. You can find this chapter for free on his website Jon’s Bushcraft, but I highly recommend ordering his book. As an educator I am impressed with ability to clearly teach and illustrate each step with tips and tricks added for future baskets along the way. He has organized the book in the order of increasing skill-level in each of the categories of baskets, so that by the end of the book you can successfully make 9 different stake-&-strand (round, oval and square) and frame baskets*.
*Editor’s update: Follow my 2018 Basket-a-week challenge as I work through each of Jon’s nine basket projects.
Fresh Dogwood’s lovely colour variation
Round basket in fresh Dogwood
