Tuesday tip - round weaved basket

Hello again!

This time I thought I'd show you how I make my round weaved baskets. I have tried a couple of different ways, and I have found that this is the easiest one, at least for me...

 1. Start by choosing your papers that you want to work with... (Doh!)

 2. Cut strips. I used 1 cm wide strips to get a nice round finish. The wider the strips, the more angular the basket will become. To get different effects you can also vary the width of your strips on the same basket.

We'll need two sets of strips, a couple of long ones - they will determine the height and the circumference of your basket. And a whole bunch of short ones.

I decided that this basket was going to have a circumference of 25cm and the height 6cm. So I cut 6 long strips and added a couple of centimeters to the length to be able to tape the ends together. Then I cut 26 strips that were about 10cm long. (Why 26 I hear you ask? Well, you should always have an even number when weaving like this. It's more likely that we're using only 24, but it's a good idea to have a few spares though...)

3. I marked the long ones at 25cm...

4. And I chalked all the edges. This took some time... This is not a crucial step however, let's move on!

5. I taped all the long strips together to form rings like this. This is when you can really see how big your basket is going to get...

6. I put little pieces of doublesided tape on half of them...

7. To be able to fasten the first short strip like this...

8. The first strip is in! Now the weaving can begin!

9. Just add strips on an every other basis... Tuck them toghether really nice and tight. If you want to you can add a bit of doublesided tape here and there, just to keep things in place.

10. All in! If you look closely you can see that the last strip was a bit thinner than the rest, and that's because the weaving actually takes a bit of space. It's like the difference when you're walking in a straight line or if you're zig zagging. Walking in a straight line takes you further... So I would estimate that even though my original circlets were 25cm, by weaving up and down (the zig zagging), the finished thing might only be about 23,5 cm, hence the thinner last strip. (This difference varies with the thickness of the paper.)

11. Adding a bottom. I secure the strips with a generous amount of scotch tape...

12. And then I add a second bottom (using glue) to hide my tape addiction! ;)

13. Then I cut the strips at an even height and glue them down to secure them... And that's the last step really, from now on you can decorate to your liking!

14. This is how my finished basket turned out! (I deliberatly added the tag in exactly that spot to hide the thinner strip...) I used punches, lace and the flower called "Fjärilsblomma" that you can buy in the shop if you fancy it. :D

I really hope this made sense to you, it's always a bit difficult to explain something to others that you've already done a couple of times, because it's so clear to you what you mean...

Anyway, enjoy and please take a look at what the other DT's are creating!!!