How to Make a Little Willow Basket

This looks harder than it is. Once you have bound the base together, it will all go quickly. We are not basketweavers, and we figured out how to do it. The child working on the basket was 7 the first time we made one together. At 9, she is even better at it. It helps to have two people working together.

First, find a willow tree in your neighborhood or in a local park. An enormous one overhangs our neighborhood playground.



Every spring it drops many delicate, supple little twigs. These are easy to gather.



Avoid the brown ones, they may be too brittle. Try to get a good armful of yellow ones.



Lay out three long twigs, crossing them in the middle to make a six-armed star.



Take another twig and, starting in the very middle, weave it over and under the arms of your star, one time around.



This first time around takes a little bit of dexterity. It helps if the grownup does it. Now insert another twig into the bottom of your basket, so that you have a seven-armed star. That way, the weaving will alternate properly.



Now keep weaving, pushing the twigs together tightly for a firm base for your basket.



Whenever you have to join a new twig, jam it tightly into the woven part. When you like the size of the base, pull up the sides.


This is a good time to have four hands. If you don't, perhaps you could fasten the top together with some string to hold the sides up. Continue weaving up the sides.



We decided the sides were high enough when the basket was this big.



Now bend the long twigs over, one by one, and weave them in and out of the remaining twigs and into the top edge of the basket, forming a brim. This is harder to describe than to do. Suffice it to say, as long as the ends are firmly fastened down, no matter what it looks like, your basket will hold together. You don't have to win the basketweaving contest. (Although you might, anyway!)



Now for a handle. Jam a strong twig down into the weave all the way to the base. Break the handle piece to the length you want for the handle. Now bend the other end and jam it in all the way to the base, too.



Now jam in a thinner twig and twist it around the handle.



We added a third twig which had some beautiful leaf buds on it.



The basket will harden as it dries, but you can play with it right now!