Willow basket weaving one o' one

Anne Mette Hjornholm was here from Denmark to teach willow basket weaving again last week - and we were not disappointed! In fact, just like last year everyone was thrilled about her abilities to cater to each individual person's needs as we all are at different levels of experience. 

Day one making Tatza baskets

The Tatza basket - also called a Polish bread basket - is a beautiful flat basket that can be varied in many ways. These are made using 6 x 6 willow rods of just one variety of willow and a small star of 6 x 2 rods appear in the center. Made with two or more varieties of willow with different colored bark the basket will appear quite different. It can also be varied by choosing another number of rods or by weaving another path of the rods in the center. 

The day was hot and after having assembled rods for our first baskets, we soon migrated from the barn to the lawn underneath our old weeping willow. For some magical reason there always seems to be a cooler breeze in the shade there - coming from Lake Erie just across the road. 
As we were working on our second baskets Anne Mette was able to keep an eye on all of us from the swing at the center of the tree. A wonderful start to 6 days of weaving.

Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows.