After reading my post last week about baskets, what direction did you think I’d go?
I wanted to try a different style of basket making, one that wouldn’t leave a lot of raw edges that would be difficult to finish off securely. I ended up diving down a rabbit hole that became an obsession and kind of gave me an RSI.
But more on that later. We’ll take it in steps so you get to know these baskets, some of which I spent upwards of 20 hours on. To see all my posts about baskets click here.
The Why
I can’t remember what inspired my first coiled basket. Searching upcycled basket weaving lead me to examples made from second hand fabrics and wool.
But the idea stuck with me. It seemed an ideal use for some of the inner tubes I was struggling to find a use for:
- Those narrow inner tubes could be the core inner material of the basket
- The stretchy inner tube that wouldn’t work for my main product line of wallets, samosas, and cable tidies could be cut into strips – those strips would keep the narrow inner tubes together.
I’m always looking for uses for tricky inner tubes, ones that would make the most of their unique characteristics.
This style seemed like a win-win!
Construction
I managed to find a few pictures taken when crafting the piece, but only pretty early on in the process:
As you can see in the upper left corner of that first picture, I folded up two narrow inner tubes to create the coil. Why two? It meant I could swap to a new inner tube without the thickness changing too much – though if you look at the finished pics at the end, there are some areas where I didn’t cover the join especially well.
I used a pair of pliers to pull the strips through, and tied the strips together hiding any tails as I went. I made two wraps around the central core material, and the third wrap picked up the layer below to keep everything together.
At the end I didn’t replace the second narrow tube in the core and it kind of trailed off at the rim.
The Basket
And here it is:
Some not entirely certain stats:
- Inner tubes used: about 7 (?)
- Time Taken: Not entirely sure, but it was over 2-3 days
- Size: 16.5 cm at its widest point, opening about 9.5 cm. 12.5 cm tall.
More Photos & Next Steps
This basket was more a proof of concept – more about speed than anything else.
You can tell I didn’t pay too much attention to whether or not the strips twisted as I went, or the fact that they didn’t cover everything. I wasn’t consistent about whether the folds from that central core of two inner tubes were facing the inside or outside of the basket, and it’s a very…organic shape.
A polite way of saying messy.
That’s not meant to take anything away from the finished product, which I still love and use to store bits and pieces around the house. But I did see some areas for improvement, mostly in terms of neatness:
- Don’t let the strips twist when wrapping
- Cover the core inner tubes
- Pay a bit more attention to the shape and being even on both sides
I had it in my head to make a slightly more open, bigger shape too. Functionality is always first and foremost when I’m making things, so I decided to use my next basket as a recycling bin for my bathroom.
But more on that next week!