Hand Woven Baskets from Newspaper

Woven Baskets are easy to use, can be made of a variety materials and come in so many shapes and sizes. Baskets that have been hand woven never go out of style because of the reason they were created in the first place: hand woven baskets can be wonderful needful things.

Woven baskets have been around for thousands of years. The ancients used reeds, grasses and tree bark to construct their utilitarian woven baskets. They used these baskets to store seed, sift meal and to gather crops. The word "basket" comes from the Greek language. Greek baskets are called kophinos, which is a basket woven of plaited branches and twigs. Unlike today, where we have plastic storage containers and zip lock bags, the ancients used their woven baskets to store common items. This article will show you how you can make a great looking woven basket with the same resourcefulness as our ancestors, but with a modern twist. This basket is made from Newspaper!

For this project you will need the following materials:

Newspaper

Masking Tape

Glue stick

Acrylic Paint(s)

Paint brush

Optional - Water base sealer/varnish

Start constructing your woven basket by first making your reeds. You do this by taking a 13 ½ inch by 22 inch sheet of newspaper. Using the "long" edge, tightly roll the sheet into a tube. Flatten the tube and use a glue stick to secure the open edge of the paper. The tube should be about 1 ½ inch wide after flattening. You repeat this six more times so you have a total of seven strips of your long newspaper reed.

Next, lay 4 of the strips down, side-by-side on a flat surface. You will weave each of the 3 remaining strips, sliding the strips together in the middle to form the bottom of the basket. Make sure you weave your strips correctly. One row should be over, and then under...the next row would start under, then over. Fold the outer unwoven reeds up to start forming the side spokes to weave through.

The next step is to lie out and cut newspaper sheets into four 11 inch by 27 inch rectangles. Using the same method as mentioned above, roll and flatten 4 more reeds to use to make the sides for the basket. You will tape the end to the base of a spoke, and then weave in and out of the spokes as you go around the basket. When you have woven your strip around the basket, tuck the end behind a spoke and tape and trim. Weave in the other three reeds, one above the other. Remember to weave in the manner I mentioned, over under, under over, so your basket forms a checker board like pattern.

When you have finished weaving the sides to your basket, you will use the unwoven part of the sides to fold down over the top of the sides. Tuck them and secure them up and under the top edge reed of the basket. You can add a little glue to these to keep them in place.

The final step in making your basket is painting it. I like to paint mine solid colors, but you may choose to use several colors. Stencils, stickers and other embellishments can be added after painting, also. For further protection for your basket, you may want to give it a coat of water base sealer. This will give your work a professional, finished look.

Making woven baskets is a great hobby and by using newspaper reeds to learn on, you can hone your skills very inexpensively and still produce a one of a kind treasure for your home or to give as a gift. Happy Weaving!