1. Materials & Tools - Materials. We shall use a great deal of rattan in making these baskets. It is a kind of palm, which grows in the forests of India, twining about the trees and hanging in graceful festoons from the branches, sometimes to the length of five hundred feet, it is said, though seldom over an inch in diameter.

2. Raffia - It is a rare thing to find a material at once so soft and so strong as raffia; and it could hardly be better fitted for the work of children's fingers if it was made for the purpose. With a pound or two of raffia (there is about as much as this in one of the hanks that can be bought at seed stores or of dealers in kindergarten supplies), a paper of tapestry needles, a pair of scissors, and several flat sticks about a yard long and half an inch wide, you are well equipped.

3. Mats - The centre, which forms the bottom of the basket, is the starting-point, and it is such an important part to master that we will make at least two centres in the form of mats before beginning a basket.

Mat with Open Border No. I

Materials:
4 12-inch spokes of No. 4 rattan,
1 7-inch spoke of No 4 rattan,
1 weaver of No. 2 rattan.

4. Simplest Baskets - In weaving the first baskets, while the worker is getting familiar with his material, he should copy such simple forms as are shown in the plate. The working out of his own ideas will follow later.

Basket with Open Border No. 1

Materials:
4 14-inch spokes of No. 3 rattan,
1 8-inch spoke of No. 3 rattan,
2 weavers of No 2 rattan.

5. Covers - In weaving larger baskets the number of spokes as well as their length must of course be increased and in order to accustom himself to the handling of these extra spokes the worker is advised to make a

Large Mat with Open Border No. 2

Materials:
6 16-inch spokes of No. 4 rattan,
I 9-inch spoke of No. 4 rattan,
3 weavers of No. 2 rattan.

6. Handles - Such handles as are described in this chapter are simple and quite possible for the beginner to make. Others that are more elaborate will be found in the chapter on Oval Baskets.

Small Basket with Twisted Handle

Materials:
Basket 6 16-inch spokes of No. 4 rattan,
9-inch spoke of No. 4 rattan,
weavers of No. 2 rattan,

7. Work Baskets - As almost everyone who uses a work basket has a different ideal of what such a basket should be -in regard to size, capacity, shape and ornament- these descriptions are not to be taken as directions, but as suggestions which each basket maker can adapt or elaborate upon. In this way he can work out a basket suited to the taste and needs of the person by whom it is to be used.

8. Candy Baskets - Children will delight in weaving baskets of this kind, and with the fine grades of rattan, with rush in its beautiful natural shades, and raffia which takes color so well, the possibilities for dainty little favors and effective larger baskets are endless.

Candy Basket of Rattan with a Band of Color

9. Scrap Baskets - There is always a demand for a strong, practical scrap basket, and if it is a thing of beauty so much the better. Simple forms are the best, and the study of Indian baskets will help the workman in his choice. The straight-sided scrap basket is one of the most satisfactory if the material used is attractive and the weaving well done.

10. Birds' Nests - At the Bird Market in Paris fascinating little nests are sold. They are woven on spokes of twigs with weavers of rush. Why should not American children, who are learning to know and love the birds, make these inviting houses and hang them in the branches of trees for the wrens and other bird neighbors to settle in? Of course they must be inconspicuous in material and finish, for no self-respecting and self-preserving bird would choose a gaily colored or decorated nest.

11. Oval Baskets - The chief difference between the round baskets we have been weaving and these oval ones is, of course, in the centre (a notable exception being the Japanese basket on page 71, which slopes gracefully up from the sides to the ends), so that the aim in this chapter is to give the worker as great a variety in the pattern and form of these centres as possible.

12. Finishing Touch - In the process of making a basket there is no time when the individuality of the worker has a better opportunity to show itself than when he is putting the finishing touch. While the basket is still damp, all irregularities of shape, which can be changed, should be remedied. One side may be higher than the other, perhaps the border is not close to the weaving or the bottom may not be flat; now is the time to look for defects of form, before the rattan dries.

13. Cane Chairs - Small, square frames of wood with holes bored in them, at intervals of about an inch, and having two or more round pegs to fit the holes, are sold by dealers in kindergarten supplies. These are excellent for the beginner to use, instead of a chair seat, while he is learning how to cane. The cane is sold at basket factories and is usually designated as coarse, medium, fine or fine fine.

14. Indian Stitches - There is a charm in the names of such Indian materials as spruce-root, cedar-bark, yucca and Indian hemp, but even if they were obtainable, they would be useless to us without the Indian touch; so we will substitute more available materials, those we have become familiar with in the preceding chapters.

15. The Indian - Not through a written literature, not through music, architecture, sculpture or painting, as we understand the fine arts, has the North American Indian yet expressed the intellectual and spiritual aspirations of the race; but chiefly through the artistic handicrafts of the women.

While primitive man, of all races, waged war and hunted, of necessity, primitive woman was ever the constructive element in society, the home-maker, the conserver of industry and thrift, the manufacturer, through simple, homely processes, of the raw products of nature into useful and sometimes beautiful forms, the inventor of many crafts, the mother of the arts, the nurse of religion. To mention only one of her contributions to civilization, there is the textile handicraft, invented by aboriginal women the world around to meet the need for shelter, clothing, hats, cradles, fish and snaring nets, mats and baskets; and so thoroughly did they master the intricacies of weaving, that not a single new stitch has been added to the sum of primitive knowledge by the most skilled modern craftsmen.

THE END