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A Basket for a Legacy Bead

By

Thaïs the Weaver

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Ever since I received a legacy Maunche “medallion” lampwork bead, I have been planning to make a transport/storage basket for it, just big enough to safely contain it and hold a small scroll listing its legacy. I love the idea of legacy items where every holder contributes something so the metaphorical weight of the item builds over time. (Also, I was worried about losing this tiny, loose bead in my bags and thus kept it safely in a drawer at home most of the time, which is not the intended life for such a thing.)

I started playing around with materials in May and decided to do a twined basket with splint-style spokes. I’ve never made a basket with shaped spokes before, so it’s not 100% symmetrical, but I love how the sweetgrass and willow bark look together and I learned a lot. The bark makes a firm but flexible structure that packs well in a travel bag, so it’s great for uses like this.

Photo of willow bark spokes arrayed in a circle with a round area in the center filled with twined sweetgrass. A wooden clothespin is clamped onto the outer edge of the in-progress twining to hold the active pieces of grass in place.

I made the base first (in May) to see how it wanted to develop. I didn’t fully finish the top edge at that point because I was still considering options for how to shape and secure a lid.

Photo of the basket with the spokes folded down to make a temporary top edge.
Photo of the interior bottom of the basket where the crossing spokes in the center make a spider shape.
Photo of the outside bottom and side of the basket, showing where the bark spokes were turned upward and secured in place by weaving two narrow bands of bark before continuing with the twining.

I did give it a little gentle encouragement to dry with a flat base after finishing this initial construction. A bottle of acrylic paint sealer was just the right size to do the trick.

Photo of the basket with temporary bent bark top edge being weighed down by a standard bottle of acrylic paint sealer to help it dry in the right shape.

Then in June, I got a little motivation from my Laurel to finish the rim and lid: one of my apprentice brothers who does awesome woodwork (among other things) was scheduled to join the Order shortly, and Northern Region War Camp became my deadline to finish the project and hand off the medallion for transport! That spurred me to decide on an edge finish: I used black raspberry bast to sew an inner rim of willow bark, which would provide a ledge to secure a lid nestled inside.

Photo of the basket with the top edge finished. A band of willow bark around the top interior edge is whip stitched into place with light green strips of black raspberry bast fiber ribbons.

The lid was constructed largely the same way as the base, but I integrated a loop of braided sweetgrass and finished the edge with a larger braid.

Top view of the lid, showing a thin braided loop handle attached at the center and a twined design of alternating white and green stripes radiating from the center of the lid.
Edge view of the unfinished lid, showing the spokes after they were folded over and tucked in.
Interior view of the finished lid, showing the whip stitching attaching a sweetgrass braid to the outer rim with black raspberry bast fiber ribbon.
Closeup of the outside of the finished lid showing more details of the elements described in the immediately preceding photos.

The lid took twice as long to make as the main basket because I needed it to fit snug enough that the whole basket could be lifted by the lid, which was fiddly. I ended up adding another sweetgrass braid on the inside of the basket, just below the lower edge of the inner willow bark rim.

Photo of the completed basket and completed lid next to each other. The lid is visibly smaller in diameter than the main basket.

I also cut a little of the fine 2-ply nettle fiber cord I made and used it to connect the lid to the base just in case the lid does pop out. Here it is being held up by the loop on the lid.

Photo of the assembled basket with the lid tucked inside, being held up in the air by only the thin braided loop on the top of the lid. A thin, off-white cord connects the side of the basket to the lid near the looped braid handle.

Finally, I needed to secure the bead inside the basket so that it wouldn’t get lost if the basket popped open. I pulled out my stash of jewelry materials and made a blunted pin out of copper wire to grab the bead, and I used more nettle cord to secure the pin to the inside of the basket.

Photo of a glass bead that is a flat circle with the hole running through the circle's diameter. The circle is yellow on the left half and purple on the right half, with a symbol similar to a stylized "M" drawn on top using the opposite colors (purple on the left and yellow on the right). The bead has the pin of a simple copper bow fibula stuck through the hole
A tiny basket of red-brown willow bark and twined white and green sweetgrass, connected by cords to a matching lid and a copper pin holding a lampwork glass bead bearing the symbol of the East Kingdom's Order of the Maunche.

And now that’s DONE! Cailte became its newest bearer in July at Great Northeastern War. (His work is awesome! Go check it out.)

Final list of plant materials used:

  • Willow bark (instead of splints)
  • Sweetgrass
  • Black raspberry bast (stitching)
  • Nettle bast (spun and plied for cords)

Everything used in this basket was grown in my yard, with the exception of the metal wire used for the pin. I really enjoyed making this little guy. It earned a signature. Much thanks to my Peer, Baron Estgar, for the encouragement to go for it when I pitched the idea. What’s the point of life if you don’t find love and joy wherever you can, even if it’s a bit ridiculous?

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