Pine Needle Baskets and More

OK, so I live in PINEllas county -- so a pine needle basket isn't such an odd idea and a very old tradition.

Here's an example by Debbi Young from the Tampa Bay Basket Guild.

These are very time consuming and a bit tedious to make, but beautiful. Today they often include beads to create spacing and "wraps" (yarn, or waxed linen wrapped around a row of pine needles) to add colour.

see the blue pen for size

Of course my efforts are a bit more modest and I have only begun the baskett base.

The pine needles are anywhere from 6 to 18 inches long and require washing, drying and optionally treating with glycerin to soften before one begins to weave the basket. Pine needles can also be dyed various colours.

I started with a treated sandollar base cente (above), but you can use all sorts - below's a wooden base center.

Basically you sew the pine needles together using either waxed linen thread or artificial sinew (waxed twine).







This is a slash pine and below left to right are pictures of the pine needles and cones from longleaf pine, slash pine and then
sand pine - all of which grow right here in Florida.

Slash pine grows very rapidly and is a major source of timber in the USA.

When not having fun with pine needles, I completed a wool drying basket (yup originally these type were used to dry sheep wool) complete with  add feature of a self designed lid

Start by weaving the base (the cans are there as weights to hold down unruly spokes- but equally could be for stockpiling for a hurricane or coronavirus!)

Then you might need to shape the base flat - here I am using old  vinegar bottles filled with water, before weaving the sides. I fancied a band of blue colour as you can see . . .

and before you know it (well OK it takes me a few days), you put on the rim ad have a basket. Because I want to store wool/yarn in my basket and the Florida sun bleaches everything, I decided to add a lid utilizing a new diagonal weave & glue technique - not perfect, but it will do.

and to close here's the obligatory sunset picture out my window.