Become a Fine Artist- Fiber Weaving

It's May Day this week so if you choose to be a Fiber Fine Artist you can weave a basket. I want to give you three different ways to weave a basket.

May Day is celebrated on May 1st and the history of the holiday goes back to Roman times as a festival of flowers... People make small baskets filled with treats or flowers to give secretly to friends and neighbors. It is customary to leave the basket on the door step of a neighbor or friend, ring the doorbell and run away.  Watch these fun ladies to learn some hot tips about the best way to share a May Day Basket.

This first one you only need paper and glue or tape. I was inspired by The Kitchen Classroom for this version of using paper to weave a basket!

Another option might be this Woven Basket project. I followed the direction from Craft Project Ideas but made a couple of changes for my project sample.  Take a look at either the images below, or the blog post from CPI.

I wanted to experiment with the things I had around my house. So I used a Styrofoam cup we had left over from our ice fishing hot chocolate days... Thank goodness there is no more ice out there :) 

I'm using a liquid glue but was having a hard time keeping it in place so... I used a rubber band. Then I out a little glue on the stick and placed it in between the rubber band and cup. Then I let it dry.

As you can see above, I used 3 sticks to start out with. Then I would give it time to dry and add two more sticks.  When all the sticks are in, you do need to have an odd number of sticks coming from your base. I used pop cycle sticks, but I bet you could use real sticks too... who knows... give it a try. We are all experimenting as a Fine Artist would do.

Then I tied my yarn around one of the sticks and went to the outside, then inside of the sticks in a circle. Do you see how the next time around, the yarn will do the opposite?? If it went behind the stick the first time around, the next time it will go in the front.

At the end I tied off the string and added a little glue to the top of it to hold the know secure. I also trimmed off the extra string and took off the rubber band.

Here is what I learned.  I learned it's hard to use white glue so if you plan to do that, be prepared to be persistent. I learn that if I could use a hot glue gun that might be better but you would need something other than a Styrofoam cut. Styrofoam and heat do not get along. I learned that the yarn was a lot of fun to weave. What will you learn with your creation?

Or you can give this last option a try. You can do a cup weaving with yarn. This is a great video showing the steps.