About a year ago, I began examining various possibilities for interweaving date stalk clusters.
One particularly popular, simple, æsthetic and charming basket is made out of a single date stalk cluster, like this one:
Here is the same basket with small ornaments around the rim:
My next project consisted of interweaving two clusters to produce a larger basket. This idea was more complex and required considerable coordination, yet it proved feasible nonetheless, as we see in this photograph:
At this point I began to conceive of several complex and interesting combinations for interweaving clusters that no one had ever attempted before. First, I tried interweaving the clusters in opposite directions, forming a highly dynamic and creative undular shape. The resulting basket has two sides and may be oriented in either direction. Baskets of this type are available for sale on my website.
I then tried combining several clusters into one large basket, beginning with three such clusters. I weave each cluster separately at first, then produce a central circle around which I integrate the various parts.
This is the result of my first attempt:
Subsequently, I combined four clusters and decided to combine them with two facing in the opposite direction, yielding a most interesting shape.
The next stage, a five-cluster basket, has already been described at length here.
For the World Wicker and Basketry Festival in Nowy Tomsyl, Poland, I decided to make a giant basket out of six date stalk clusters: two groups of three clusters are placed in opposite directions (like the four-cluster basket), forming two triangles that the eye perceives as a Star of David.
This basket is intended for decorating a room or wall, rather than being displayed on a table, as its size exceeds one meter in diameter.
Here, we display the finished product and the sequential stages of its production:
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One of the most wonderful weaving materials in the world is bamboo. The uniqueness of bamboo is that it allows you to create huge and strong baskets, and on the other hand to weave very delicate and miniature pieces