Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Primitive Skills => Topic started by: Ryan_Gill_HuntPrimitive on December 15, 2012, 04:09:37 pm
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This morning.. (and afternoon) I made a pine needle basket. holy cow is it a lot of work... hours and hours for a 7" basket. Was really neat to experience making one. I cheated on this one since it was supposed to be an experiment. I used a leather needle and artificial sinew.... I had hopes of doing a bigger nicer one with a home made bone needle and elm cambium lashings... I can't imagine starting another anytime soon tho. With how much work is involved you can really appreciate how much this little basket would have been "worth" in the primitive world. I've got so much time in it I'd have to get at least $75 for it to sell it! that's saying something..lol
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Wow! That's really cool! I never thought of using needles to make a container.
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Cool little basket, Ryan. Those nice long LONG LEAF pine needles sure work well for them. Next you ought to build yourself a quiver. You might get it done before you are too old to enjoy it. ;D
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When I started I was thinking how cool a quiver would be made from this. ;D ;D ;D ;D not a chance!
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;D
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An exercise in patience and persistance. Job well done. :)
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WOW. That is gorgeous! Wish I had that talent. I have tried my hand at basket making. Simply ain't gonna happen :( I probably could if I had someone to coach me along. Anyway, make some more ot those. I bet they would sell. Or even use them for trading purposes.
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Awesome!..... Build a long? :-)
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Thats cool I have always liked hand made baskets, and quivers of this type. :)
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thanks guys. maybe when Spring comes and I can peel elm cambium easy, I will do an all abo build along of this style basket. This was my first attempt btw, it really isn't hard, just tedious.
made another quick one from split palmetto stems....which apparently isn't very good material choice. it made a basket, but not a pretty one. guess if you want a pretty one you gotta have rattan or willows. I need to find something else here local that will work nice. vines work, but I don't think they will look very good. these are all just pieces to my "abo living kit"
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I'd say thats a pretty nice one for your first!
most 'firsts" get lost in a closet,(or given to distant relatives) that one oughta be in a place where its seen.
do you have buckbrush growing around your area? If you're looking for an indigenous material for coiling baskets.
contemporary honeysuckle Cherokee baskets used to be buck brush before asian honeysuckle began to wind its way everywhere.
i've had some nice results with it.
you have to soak it and scrape the bark (over a wedge shaped grooved board end in a vice)
soak it good before weaving, but this is definitely the time to gather buckbrush runners. makes a nice woven basket too.
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thanks, no I dont think we have buck brush around here. I will look it up and see if I know it by a different name but it doesnt ring a bell
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That's a nie looking basket.. Do you happen to have a video of the process?
Cipriano
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I was gonna suggest honeysuckle and like Richardzane said you have to boil it and remove the bark. For other coil basket material sweet grass or bull rush works too I think.
Did you use a open ended cone to gather and size the bundles of the needles as you wove it?
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nope, I just eye balled it :D I thought about using a gauge but then figured that was only one more step to discourage me from doing it. when it felt thin, I added a few
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No tape measure, no digital caliper, or triple-beam scale to make sure they were all the same density? Please tell me you spine tested each of the individual needles?
I've made a couple little teeny baskets, big enough to each house ONE of your arrowheads and I thought THOSe were a lot of hard work! Nice neat stitching, wow, a thing of function and beauty all rolled into one. Thanks for sharing.
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I think you are in florida is palmetto a option for weaving?
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I made a split palmetto stem basket. It's work-able but not ideal. Doesnt bend overly well. the leaves of the palm are way to brittle when dry
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here in NE Oklahoma the buckbrush plant looks like this picture...grows in spreading clumps.
Into winter it has red berries...birds seem to ignore them. they crush in your fingers feeling waxy.
always thought they'd make a good lubercant for a fire spindle, but never tried.
the runners or shoots, from 3ft to 6ft, run along the ground - lighter colored than the main gnarly bush growth in the winter.
their strong and they dry harder than honeysuckle. They do have little knots here and there,but i think it makes a basket look cool.
this is the time to harvest them. I cut em with a gut hook on my pocketknife close to the ground.
I used to roll them up to dry, till a Seneca/Cayuga basket weaver friend told me its better to bundle them straight
because its much easier to size them... yep...makes sense!
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Nope, I've never seen that down here. I have lots of vines around, I am going to make a different one of vines later this week maybe. I have tons of gallberry shoots also, I bet it would be just as good as willow. I will give it a go too
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Ryan, the new frond shoots(not the stems) in the spring are more subtle and are used by the basket weavers in Charleston, SC as lashing in their sweetgrass baskets.
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gotcha, thanks for the info.
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Very nice basket,got tons of them where I live,I live in a pine thicket,doubt I would have the patients to do that with the tho. :)
Pappy
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I've made a dozen or so pine neddle baskets over the last few years.I find it's something to do after the sun goes down.I used raffia for the first ones.it's a palm leaf i think.You can use queen palm if you cut it while still in the spike.I like using artificial sinew because you can streach it and make a really tight basket.I've got a few that are almost water tight, alittle bees wax and they could be drinking vessels.Your basket looks great ,keep it up.I thought about a quiver also but that would take a long time and a truck load of needles.
Roger
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Got lots of folks doin pine needle baskets in the west. They even sell a kit in the NDN Museum gift shop. Interestingly enough PN baskets are "new" baskets. As westward expansion continued and the desire to obtain NDN baskets continued to increase the availability of traditional materials began to decrease due to land ownershipo and changes in land use and management. Pine needles were in many cases more readily available and became a Neo-traditional use of something long used for other purposes. In the Sierra Nevada traditionally speaking, men were only permitted to make baskets for taking life like bird traps and fish traps or open weave baskets for hauling stuff. Women made the nicer baskets used for food/medicine storage and preparation. Learning is a beautiful process - the basket is nice - keep up the good work.
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So....Where is the lid? ??? What a slacker! :P So what are you doing on here anyway?!! You should be soaking more pine needles! ::) C'mon, lets get that lid made, and decorated, in a star pattern. Awww quit yer moanin, ya wus, get busy, it probably won't take that much longer than the basket. ;)
Wow, first time pine needle basket? Sheesh, that is beautiful !! :o Yes, you need to do a build along! 8) Now about that lid..... ;D ;D Oh, after you get through with the lid, you need to try to make a Pomo style basket!! They were woven so tight, they were water tight, and could be used to hold water, and they used no sealant! Now there is a challenge to recreate! Of course I don't know where you would get the grass that they used. Maybe you could trade Yosemite Ben for some. ;) Now stop reading this and get on that lid! 8)
Wayne
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Man that looks good! I gotta learn how to do this and make one sometime