More Baskets and How to Make Them

Chapter X: Some Natural Dyes and Unusual Materials

There is a fascination about colouring one's own material that only one who has proved it can understand. As an artist mixes his colours, one dye after another is tried until at last a fortunate blending gives the desired shade. Solid extracts of vegetable dyes are sold which simplify the process; or, if one lives in the country, hedgerow dyes are plentiful for those who have eyes to see and patience to use them. If one does much dyeing, rubber gloves are almost a necessity, and a brass preserving kettle will be found useful. If small quantities of material are dyed at a time half- worn basins or saucepans of medium size will do. Wash the rattan and raffia, especially the latter, in soap or soda and water and rinse thoroughly before dyeing. One of the secrets of even colouring is to boil the dye slowly, leaving the material in it for hours. In this way full deep colours will be obtained even on rattan.
Indian Red. A beautiful shade of Indian red is made by boiling the material slowly for six hours in the following solution. Two tablespoonfuls of cutch extract and a small crystal of blue- stone (about as much as would go on a ten-cent piece) dissolved in one quart of boiling water.
Green from Indigo and Fustic. Mordant the material to be dyed with alum (three ounces of alum dissolved in a quart of water), and dye in a solution of one tablespoonful of indigo and a small crystal of copperas in one quart of boiling water. When the desired depth of colour is obtained remove the material, wash the loose dye from it and dye in a fustic bath (one quart of water in which one tablespoonful of fustic has been dissolved) to the shade required. Instead of fustic, bark extract may be used. If a brighter shade is needed, add one or two tablespoonfuls of alum mordant to the bath.
Olive Green. Soak the rattan or raffia in water, then in one quart of water in which one tablespoonful of copperas has been dissolved, for half an hour. Boil in a fresh bath of one tablespoonful of bark extract, half a teaspoonful of indigo and one-quarter of a teaspoonful of logwood to one quart of water.
Dark Bluish Green. Soak the material in a bath composed of one tablespoonful of copperas in one quart of water for half an hour. Then boil in a fresh bath of one quart of water in which one tablespoonful of bark extract, three quarters of a teaspoonful of indigo and a piece of logwood extract the size of a pea have been dissolved. Let it simmer for several hours or until the desired shade is obtained. The same proportion of dye in two quarts of water will give light shades.
Dark Red. A good dark red is made with three- quarters of a teaspoonful of logwood extract, one-quarter of a teaspoonful of fustic extract, two tablespoonfuls of cochineal, two tablespoonfuls of stannous chloride and one-quarter of a tea- spoonful of cream of tartar, in one quart of water. Boil slowly for several hours.
Orange. A beautiful orange may be made with one tablespoonful of orange fustic, one- quarter of a teaspoonful of cochineal, two table- spoonfuls of stannous chloride, one-quarter of a teaspoonful of alum in one quart of water. Boil slowly until the colour is a little deeper than you wish, as it will dry lighter.
Yellow Brown. Boil the material slowly in the following solution for several hours. One tablespoonful of cutch extract to one of fustic in one quart of water.
Olive Brown from Cutch. To one tablespoonful of cutch extract allow one tablespoonful of fustic and one-quarter of a teaspoonful of logwood. Dissolve in one quart of water. The material should boil slowly in this bath for several hours.
Brown from Madder. In one quart of water dissolve one to two tablespoonfuls of madder. Do not allow it to boil, but leave the material in it for five or six hours, just below the boiling point.
Hedgerow Dyes. In a quaint old English book on dyeing one reads that "The leaves of almond, peach or pear trees give yellows which serve to make green shades if boiled with alum and tartar." This, too, is interesting: "A stuff dyed in the King's blue, well scoured, then boiled with four parts of alum and one of tartar, takes a fine deep green of the shade of a duck's wing, but it must be boiled for two hours in a liquor with a sufficient quantity of the root of sharp-pointed dock, grossly bruised. This root, which grows in every hedge and field, is a good acquisition, for . . . it produces an infinity of shades from straw colour to a pretty, fine olive. These shades stand all manner of proof."
Yellow from Dock Root. Gather the roots of yellow dock and allow them to get thoroughly dry. Break them into small pieces; wash and soak for several days in one quart of water in which half a tablespoonful of washing soda has been dissolved. Boil the material in the same water very slowly for five or six hours. This will give reddish shades of yellow. For brighter shades add half a teaspoonful of alum.
Olive Blown from Walnut Bark. To two pounds of fresh black walnut bark add two tablespoonfuls of washing soda and about a cup of rock alum. Cover with boiling water. Boil the material in it slowly for about twenty-four hours. Stir and turn the material from time to time and add more water if it boils away. When the material is the desired shade remove from the dye and rinse in cold water.
Yellow Brown from Oak Bark. Soak one pound of oak bark in one quart of water in which a lump of washing soda about the size of a large egg has been dissolved, for three days, or if dark shades are required, for a week. The material to be dyed is also washed in water with soda in it. It is then boiled with the oak bark until it is the desired shade. If a small quantity of alum is added the brown becomes brighter.
Olive Brown from Sumac. Soak one pound of the cone-shaped fruit of the sumac in one quart of water, in which one tablespoonful of washing soda has been dissolved, for several days. The material should simmer in this for twenty-four hours. If the water boils away add a little more.
Unusual Materials. There is a silvery white Japanese fibre that makes wonderfully beautiful baskets. It is strong and may be employed successfully in pairing where the strands can be twisted, but as it frays slightly it cannot be used in sewed baskets. Another fibre of the same colour is silver top, a relative of the more prosaic palm leaf. It comes from the West Indies, where it is plaited and sewed into hats (see Chapter VII.) and soft baskets The silver side is slightly fuzzy and soft, while the reverse looks almost like cane, it is so shiny and smooth. This smooth side is sometimes pale-green, sometimes a light brown. It is successfully used in the triple braid and in any weave where a fiat material is required. The smooth side may be separated from the silver one with a sharp knife. This makes it an ideal material for coiled baskets, tough and strong and agreeable in colour. A wood fibre that is used to tie up tobacco comes in pale yellow and orange. It is lacey in texture and quite brittle until damp- ened, when it becomes pliable and is plaited into a flat braid for hats. The Indians use slender, tough roots of cedar and spruce in many of their baskets. These may be found just below the ground after the tree has been cut down. They some- times grow five feet long and are easily split through the centre. Then there are the rushes: Cat-tails which are gathered in August, and the fine grass- like rush with a porous centre which is found in marshy places on the Atlantic coast ; these are used for baskets. In rush-seating chairs cat - tail is an excellent substitute for imported rush.
Covered Basket of Plaited Silver Top
Materials:
A bundle of silver top,
A darning-needle, No. 1.
This flexible covered basket of plaited silver top is quite unlike any others we have made. The five-stranded plait described in Chapter VII. is sewed with fine fibres of silver top. The bottom of the basket is coiled and sewed like the palm- leaf hat for five rows, counting the centre. Straight sides seven rows high are made. The cover is coiled and sewed in the same way for five rows. Three rows form the sides. A soft handle of braided silver top having two or three pieces in each of its three strands is made. It is twenty- four inches long, and starts at the centre of the basket, where an end is sewed securely. The long end passes up around the side of the basket, to which it is stitched, through the fifth row from the centre of the cover, down again through the fifth row from the centre on the opposite side of the cover. It is sewed to the side of the basket until it meets the other end at the bottom of the basket, where it is stitched firmly.
Unfinished Basket of Rattan and Silver Top
Materials:
24 30-inch spokes of No. 2 rattan,
48 15-inch spokes of No. 2 rattan,
About 5 weavers of No. 2 rattan,
A bundle of silver top,
An awl.
The unfinished basket in the plate shows a centre which is an elaboration of the sixteen-spoke centre shown in Figure 2. It is s t a r t e d in the same way, except that there are two more groups of four each, one of which is woven vertically, the other horizontally under and over alternate groups (see Fig. 42).
A weaver is started under the left end of the upper horizontal group, is brought over the next group, under the next, and so on for two rows. The spokes are then separated into twos, and the weaver is brought under a pair in one group and the adjoining pair in the next. It passes over the remaining pair in that group and the next pair in the following one. In this way the bottom, three and a half inches in diameter, is woven. Extra spokes are inserted, two between each original pair. These are wet and turned up, flaring outward. The same stitch is continued up the sides for an inch, the weaver passing over two groups and under two (see Fig. 43). Here the triple braid is started with silver top and one row is woven. The spokes are separated into ones, and four more rows of triple braid are made. The basket may be finished at any desired height.
Basket of Rattan and Silver Top
Materials:
16 22-inch spokes of No. 2 rattan,
32 10-inch spokes of No. 2 rattan,
2 weavers of No. 2 rattan,
About 4 weavers of No. 2 black rattan,
About 2 weavers of No. 2 Indian red rattan,
A bunch of silver top,
An awl.
A basket with a round bottom and square sides is unusual. This one may serve as a jardiniere for a small plant. A sixteen-spoke centre is started (see Fig. 2) and woven to a diameter of two and seven-eighths inches, when two additional spokes are inserted between each pair. The spokes are wet until pliable and turned up to form flaring sides. The groups are separated into twos and a row of triple braid is woven in silver top. Two rows of pairing, with a weaver of black and one of Indian red, are made. The spokes are separated into ones and an inch of triple braid is woven in silver top. The sides should then be pressed into a square shape and kept in this way by constant pressure. A row of triple twist in No. 2 black rattan is followed by five rows of silver top in the stitch shown in Figure 43. A row of triple twist in black rattan is made, and the spokes are wet until pliable and rounded in. Three-quarters of an inch of silver top in triple braid is followed by this border: the spokes are brought together into groups of two. Each of these groups is brought over the next three groups on the right, under the next two, over the following group, and in, where the ends are cut after the border is finished.

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