I saw a photo of a similar basket in an old book and thought I’d try to make one myself. The wire mesh was slightly fiddly to place over all the uprights but I got there eventually.

A trac border secured the mesh underneath and the rest of the basket was finished in the usual way. I wish I had completed a row of weaving before the trac border but there’s always next time.

The basket can be hung above your oven or in the airing cupboard allowing the dry air to circulate around the herbs as they dry.

The finished article.

These smell lovely and are very easy to make. Gather an odd number of long lavender stems and arrange them like so..

Tie the stems tightly together just below flowers with approx a metre of ribbon. I used fairly narrow stuff. Leave one end long enough to pass through the centre of the wand for tying a bow later.

Now crush the stems with a pair of scissors or something blunt, just below the tie. This helps the stems bend around the flowers without cracking.

Bend the stems around the flowers  to form a cage with the short piece of ribbon inside and the long piece outside.

Now you can start weaving over one, under one.  Pull it as tight as you can because there will be some shrinkage. When you get to the bottom of the flowers tie a bow to finish.

Lovely fat ball feeders made this morning by these lovely ladies. You can also fit a jam jar inside for a candle or flower arrangement.

Felt slightly left out after all the gorgeous baskets produced yesterday so here’s my finished piece.

I had 4 lovely ladies making baskets yesterday. I had great fun and hope they did too. They all made baskets to be proud of.

I learnt how to make these traditional Polish platters in Ireland this April. I really enjoy the rhythm and repetition making them. They are interesting to look at whilst still being highly practical. What’s not to love?

At the end of April I had a great week in Ireland with friends.  We stayed in Lough Na Fooey, learning as much as possible from Joe Hogan. In 4 days I managed to make  laundry basket, a creek, a log basket, 2 skibs and 2 polish tatska.  It was a really restorative week.