One of the oldest known methods of making baskets is coiling with bundled pine needles. The Seminoles, a Native American people, made beautiful baskets, using grasses to bind the pine needles together, and needles made from seashells.
I love the idea of crafting with found and foraged materials, so I thought I would give this a go. There are lots of tutorials on You Tube, and all you need are the pine needles; a sharp needle with a big eye; some stout thread; and a small length of tube (mine is about 7mm diam and 5cm long, I found it in my rummage drawer, it may have come out of a spray bottle).
I am SO chuffed with the results, it was really easy, just felt instinctive, and I love that a thousand years ago someone was doing pretty much the same thing. Here's how mine turned out ...
You can buy the needles online, but that would have defeated the object for me, so my DH went foraging in the park where he helps out as a volunteer and came back with a carrier bag stuffed with pine needles (they need to be long ones, at least 10cm or so), which I washed and spread out to dry ...
Then I sorted through them, discarding any debris or dodgy bits, and put them all the same way around (each pair of needles has a nubby bit at one end). Eventually, I had this many ready to go ...
At this stage, you can dry them out and keep them, you can even dye them different colours. You just have to soak them again when you ready to use them. However, I wanted to start straight away, so my needles were still moist enough to be pliable. Between sessions I kept them in this plastic box in a cold place with some damp paper towel and that seemed to work really well. I also found this twine which we found in John's Dad's old garden shed, which I thought was perfect for this.
In the end, I got all three baskets and one lid out of that carrier bag full of needles, with just a tiny bundle left over. They can be a bit prickly to work with, so my fingers are a bit sore, but it was well worth it for the satisfaction. I think they'd make lovely eco-friendly gift baskets wouldn't they?
I'm now thinking that it might be fun to try weaving other bits and bobs in with the pine needles - like say lavender or rosemary sprigs. I also have some brightly-coloured fine crochet thread so I could try out some more decorative stitching .... hmm mm ....
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