Basket Weaving Ain’t Easy

As someone who has become very familiar with baskets this past year, I can say that I truly appreciate and respect the time and skill it takes to makes them.  I have baskets from Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania and Uganda. Basket weaving is one of the most underestimated skills ever.

I learned coil basket weaving in a few short days in preparation for a series of classes I was teaching. It wasn’t easy at first. I adapted the materials from the traditional ones used by Ugandan women who use banana stalks and raffia to weave their traditional bukedo and raffia baskets like the one in the picture below.

The dyes used are natural and are derived from the various plants, roots, flowers and lichens in the village making these baskets an earth-friendly craft.

Another thing I learned from basket weaving is patience.  You cannot quickly weave a basket, it takes time, lots of time. Some of my first attempts at coil weaving reaped some small lumpy coaster-like circles made of raffia and nylon clothesline. They weren’t pretty at all which brings me to the third thing I learned from basket weaving, perseverance.

You cannot be a quitter and weave baskets. While the average 12″ – 14″ bukedo and raffia basket takes a Ugandan woman a few days to make, weaving my little 4″ creations took about a week. Though I have always admired  basket weaving, I have a new found respect for it.

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