Almost everyone can learn to weave from a vine. Of course, making a filigree, one-of-a-kind braided product takes years of practice and talent. However, you can start training without special skills. All you need is a willow vine and a little patience.
It is necessary
- - vine;
- - knife;
- - rope.
Instructions
Step 1
The most common material for weaving is willow. You can harvest the vine at any time of the year, but depending on the season, its properties will change slightly. In spring and summer, the twigs will delight you with their beautiful color and ease of peeling off the bark, but their flexibility will leave much to be desired. In winter and autumn, the appearance will deteriorate somewhat, but the strength and elasticity will be almost perfect. To make sure that the bar does not break during weaving, bend it 180 degrees - good material will withstand such loads.
Step 2
Cut branches between one and one and a half meters in length. Immediately after collection, it is necessary to remove the bark from them. To do this, you can buy a special knife or use a fairly sharp tool found at home. Having removed the "skin", split the vine into 2-3 strips and leave to dry in a warm, sunny place for a couple of days. Immediately before starting work, soak the vine in water for 2-3 hours, this will make it softer and more pliable.
Step 3
As a rule, students begin their acquaintance with the technique of weaving from a vine with the simplest objects - baskets and baskets. Traditionally, work begins with making the bottom of the product. You can make a kind of plywood simulator or weave a real bottom. In the first case, you need to cut out a plywood circle that exceeds the diameter of the intended basket by about 0.5 cm. Around the perimeter at a distance of about 3 cm, drill holes and insert rods into them, on which walls will be created (such rods are called uprights).
Step 4
To make a wicker bottom, take 4 rods, the length of which is equal to the diameter of the basket. Connect them in pairs. In the center of the first pair, cut half the thickness (you should get a notch). Cut the second one through, too, in the middle and insert the first pair of sticks into the hole - so that you get a cross. Then take the first vine, attach its wider end to the cross at the very center and begin to braid the cross in a circle. Pass the vine over one "ray" of the cross, pass under the next, then draw again from above. In this way, weave 2-3 rows in a spiral. This pattern is called "braid". It is better to take thinner rods on the central part of the bottom, thicker as you approach the edge.
Step 5
After 2-3 rows, go to the "string" pattern. To do this, fix the vine at the first part of the cross and wrap it around the frame as with braiding. Then take the second vine and attach it to the next segment of the cross. Weave in the same way, but so that where the first vine passes over the base rod, the second vine is under it and vice versa. You will get a drawing that resembles a pigtail. Tie the rope to the bottom to the end.
Step 6
Use an odd number of rods to frame the basket walls. As a result, there should be a distance equal to the width of 2-3 strips for weaving between adjacent rods. Fasten these branches parallel to the sticks at the base of the bottom, then lift them up perpendicularly and tie at the end with a string. In the center, you can put a plywood circle equal to the diameter of the basket so that its dimensions do not distort during weaving.
Step 7
For the walls of the basket, use a "braid" or "string" pattern, modifying them as desired: for example, you can braid not every twig in the back and in the front, but every two or three.
Step 8
When the walls are ready, take one rod equal to the circumference at the base of the basket. Bend it into a ring, tying the ends together. Attach the ring to the uprights. After that, bend the first riser down 90 degrees, go around the next rod on the right with it and put it inside the basket, cutting off the second riser from it to the right. In this way, weave into a "pigtail" and cut off all the branches of the basket frame.
