The basics of coil basketry

This article aims to show you how to make a very simple bushcraft style Coil Basket, which could be made at home or out in the woods.

The Coil basket has to be the simplest kind of basket and is the one you may wish to learn before advancing to woven basketry. You can make coil baskets in a variety of different ways and the one in this article is just one of them.

There is a huge variety of materials you can use to make one of these baskets. I simply used hay and inner Elm bark for the basket featured in this article. Other materials you can use include: sedges, reeds, grasses, bark, Pine needles, modern string, home made cordage…..and the list goes on and on. Often you can use just whatever is to hand. However you should make sure that the materials that you use are dry, otherwise they may shrink making the binding loose.

If your coils are lashed as strong and tight as possible your basket will be almost watertight which means they are good for collecting and storing small objects like seeds.

The material which coils round to form the main bulk of your basket is called the ‘Warp’ and the binding material used to lash everything together is called the ‘Weft’.

 

To start your basket take a small handful of hay (this will be your ‘Warp’) and make the end into a piece of cord so that you have an eye through which you can thread your binding material (I have used inner Elm bark. This will be your ‘Weft’)

 

Begin to wrap the weft around your warp. The eye in the end of the warp will help to lock the weft in place. The weft should be wrapped around the warp for the first few centimeters to start.

 

Now start to coil up the warp. From now on every couple of turns round the warp you make, you should take the weft and thread it around the previous layer of warp. If you have trouble threading the weft between the warps you can use an awl to separate the fibers.

 

The end of my bark was hard and I was able to put a point on it with my knife which made it easy to shove through between the warps.

 

You will need to keep adding more fibers to your warp so that it doesn’t run short and end up uneven. After the warp has created a few layers of your coil basket you may wish to increase the amount of hay you add to the warp, this will make the warp thicker and the basket will grow faster.

 
 
When your weft runs out you can weave the end down the basket between the warps to lock it in place. You can introduce new wefts by doing the same thing but up to the rim of your basket where you can continue wrapping.
 
 

I made this simple tool from a piece of garden bamboo cane. When shoved between the warps it creates a small channel through which you can pass your weft. You could also make one of these from a bone.
 
 

It won’t be long before your basket has grown to a usable size. You can make a basket as big or small as you like with walls as steep or gradual as necessary depending on your needs.
 

When you are happy with the size of your basket stop adding as many fibers to your warp and eventually stop altogether so that the warp tapers off.

 
You can make handles from various materials. A wooden handle is rigid and strong which maybe suitable for your needs. The design or use of a basket may mean that a handle is not required.
For my basket I made this simple wooden handle from some Willow. I have made a couple of wholes about 2 centimetres up from the ends which I carved into points
Push the ends of the handle into the warp making sure that the handle is central and straight. Now you will need to fix the handle in place, this is where the wholes come in handy.

Push a thin stick or awl through the warp fibers and whole, and then out the other side to separate the fibers. Now pass string through this passage and tie the handle in place.

 
 
I decided to bind the top of the handle with bark to complete the basket.

The two baskets shown here on the left were made with hay and modern string. They have rope handles which were made from hay too.

 
These baskets are made from Sedges and is bound with inner lime bark fibres.
This one uses a pine cone as a handle on the lid.