1. History of baskets

Based on the carbon dating performed on the oldest known basket, the practice of basket weaving has been used in cultures all over the world for at least 12,000 years. There are a number of uses for bamboo and rattan baskets, ranging from tabletop decorations to traps meant for catching fish, and they play a prominent role in some religious ceremonies. In fact, baskets were used to contain food and supplies that were dropped down from aircraft to the troops. Baskets made for purely aesthetic reasons incorporate intricate patterns, striking colors, and often more flexible fibers. On the other hand, baskets intended for utilitarian purposes, like the gathering of food, are crafted using stiffer ribs and thicker fibers for increased durability.

2. Raw materials of handcrafted baskets

To make beautiful and sophisticated handicraft products, artisans need a wide range of plant fibers including water hyacinth, cane, twigs, seagrass, jute and seagrass. They also use concentrated cloth dyes in some types of manufacture or vegetable dyes to reproduce unique colour imitating historic baskets. Wood is also used for some designs, particularly when the type of basket needs a solid bottom and for some types of handles. Other than raw materials, artisans need tools like saws, awls, planes, knives, and beaters for hammering or bending pieces of willow. A tub is required for soaking fibers. 

3. Manufacturing process of bamboo and rattan baskets

Many bamboo and rattan baskets are made in very standard shapes and sizes, some unique to various parts of the world, and they look so much alike that they could have come from machines. They are indeed mass-produced objects but made by hand.

• Step 1: The process begins by choosing a design or standard pattern including shape and size. Materials are also gathered or purchased, and the necessary tools for working those materials are assembled. If the fibers are such that they need to be soaked, then soaking is done in advance of basket making, depending on the nature of the fiber. Fibers are also dyed in advance of weaving or coiling.

• Step 2: If the design calls for a wood base, the base is shaped, and holes are bored in the wood to accommodate the spokes forming the sides of the basket.

• Step 3: A basket is built from the ground up. Its base or bottom is made first. For a round basket with a flat bottom (as an example of any of hundreds of types of baskets that may be manufactured), the base is made by laying out a series of spokes that are stiff and work like rods to support more flexible woven material. Other rods called weavers are woven in and out among the spokes; the weavers are lighter, thinner, and more flexible, so that they can be woven and so they won't be strong enough to distort the spokes.

• Step 4: The sides of this kind of basket can be formed in either of two ways. Initially, the spokes for the base can be cut to be long enough to form the sides as well. When the base is finished, the spokes are soaked to soften them, squeezed with pliers at the perimeter of the base, and then bent up to form the sides.

• Step 5: The sides are also formed by cutting side spokes and weaving them down through the base perimeter fibers and then up again so they form side spokes. Side spokes are essential if the base spokes are large. The sides are then woven with flexible weavers that are passed over and under the side spokes. Again, these weavers need to be smaller than the material forming the spokes so the spokes are not distorted. The side spokes are longer than the finished basket is tall; the remaining ends of the spokes are used to finish the top edge of the basket with a border. The spoke ends need to be soaked before the border can be made so the spokes can more easily be woven in and out of each other and the ends turned down into the basket sides.

• Step 6: The handle of the basket is chosen of the best available reed to be strong, durable, attractive, and relatively smooth to the touch so it can be held. The ends of the handle reeds are soaked in water and threaded down into the sides of the basket. The over-lap has to be long enough to prevent the handle from pulling out of the sides when the basket is filled and used.

• Step 7: If the basket has a lid, the lid is made in the same manner as the base, but the rods and weavers should be of the same sizes as those in the sides of the basket to match the appearance of the basket.

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