Since I have strips of elm bark on hand that I've been using for dyeing, and since one of my last week's customers said she wanted to see the basket I was talking about making, and since I could use another basket on my desk, and since I felt like it ...
Here we go.
First you cut a branch off of an elm tree (or the whole tree, I suppose, but I just cut a branch off because it needed to be trimmed off of that tree as it was in my way).
Then trim off all the little branches and twigs.
While it's still fresh, peel the bark off. I found that it's easier if you start at the base of the branch because the nubs of the twigs kind of point up toward the top, doncha know, and the strips just ease off over them. Either way, it's definitely a piece of cake while the branch is still fresh. Try it with an dry old stick versus a fresh one. You'll see.
So now you've got a bunch of long strips of bark. While you're working on getting them, you might notice that the ones you've already stripped are turning a pretty orange-brown color on the inner bark side.
I reckon you could use those strips right away but I didn't - I used them to make dye, remember? So into the kettle of water they went to cook for a while with the fabric in there with them. Works great I have to say, and elm (so I've read on line) apparently has plenty of tannin and is acidic by nature and such so you don't have to use any mordants (to fix the color) unless you want to play with what color you're gonna get.
While the fabric for the work tunic I'm going to make was still steeping I got my quart can of paint, put it on a round metal platter, took one of the strips of bark out of the brew, and measured it on the paint can, up, over, and back down. Added a couple of inches, and used that one for a pattern for the rest.
That wide strip below gave me two side strips for my basket.
Once you have a bunch of strips cut to length and trimmed to about the same width, start centering them on the top of the can, and line up the edges at the rim of the can as you go. The extra length at the bottom serves a purpose.
And there they are, all lined up. It took seven strips, but how many you need will depend on how wide you make them.
Put something heavy on top of where all the strip cross; I used this big roll of wire which is PLENTY heavy. There's a thick place at the 'crossroads' so it's sitting crooked. Next time I'll use an empty can and the weight will push that part down and the bottom will be flat.
I used thin wire to snug the side strips up against the can because I want this basket to have straight sides. That bottom one you see here I pushed on down to the very bottom and snugged it at tight as I could, then added another one at the top. You can use whatever you want to snug the side strips into place. Then do the best you can to get them evenly distributed.
Here it is with the three wires in place.
Since the sun came out and the wind was blowing I set it outside on the front step to dry. Not that it did me much good as it's STILL not dry four hours later.
And here it is, showing that lump. If I don't get the can out of there and flatten that lump up into the inside of the basket guess what. My basket ain't gonna sit flat and straight but will wibble wobble all over the place.
While we're waiting for the basket to dry, we're also waiting for the fabric we dyed in the elm bark and water to dry.
This first photo is of fabric I just dipped into the cold water for a few minutes after the bark had been in there for long enough to give the water some good color. I wanted a pale orange and got a very pale orange, too pale for what I want so I'll give it another dip. It's for a dress. There are several styles we can use this piece of fabric for but I'll probably just slice a T in the top for (which will give me a V neckline. If I cut an X I'd have Vs in front and back but that's not what I'm going to do with this one. Pop your head through the T, wrap a belt or sash around your waist, fiddle with the draping, and there you go!
These next are a couple of dish towels left in the dye longer so they're going to be a deeper orange- brown. I'm going to make a work tunic out of them by stitching them together on one end, cutting off a bit of the sides up to where I want the bottom of my cap sleeves to be, and stitching them up. These dish towels are long enough to reach past my hips so are a good length for a work tunic. I'll wear it with my lightweight dark brown cotton work pants and belt it with a sash of the same dark brown cotton.
And this is as far as I've gotten since nothing's dry yet and it's raining again so it might take a while before I can get on with these projects. I just wanted to get at least this much in here before I forgot.
What I CAN do, though, is tell you how I plan to finish this basket I've got going here. Keep in mind that I've never done this before and haven't even really looked it up on line (yikes, that's pretty strange for ME!) but am making it up as I go along. So it's an experiment.
The PLAN is to let it dry enough to take the can out of it so I can flip it upright, put something under that lump so the outside of the bottom of the basket is flat, and let it finish drying, leaving the wires in place.
Then it will be time to put the rim on.
In this particular case it just so happens that the rim strips need to be the same length as the side ones so I just made myself two extra ones. One's for the inside of the rim; the other for the outside. They're long enough to overlap an inch or so.
Right now they're soaking in the dye, mainly because I don't want to let them dry out and get all curly and then have to sog them up again when I'm ready for them. So there they sit, soaking away.
WHEN the time comes I'll trim the ends of the side strips so they're all even; then I'll wrap one of the rim strips around the outside of those nice even (I hope) side strips with a bit of its edge just above them, and poke holes to stitch it together where it overlaps with synthetic sinew and a big needle.
To keep the side strips where they're supposed to be, I'll poke a hole in each of them and through the rim strip and use more sinew and my big needle to stitch a seam (of sorts) there.
And, finally, on goes the other rim strip, on the inside. More hole poking and stitching with sinew and big needle, and then repeat the seam thing all the way around.
It isn't going to look like much, but I'll be quite very satisfied if it sits right and doesn't fall apart.
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