Bread Basket made of White ash

Today I worked on a bread basket made of white ash. I dipped it in a walnut dye bath for about 5 - 10 minutes.
Base dimensions: 6" W x 11" L
Top dimensions: 8" W x 13" L
2 - 3" Ash handles

Time to completion: about 5+ hours

I received a new shipment of basket books last week and decided to make the bread basket listed in one of my Black Ash Baskets book.

Preparation: the white ash material I got is machine made. It was nice and thin and very easy to weave with. Since it was cold outside today I decided to work on the basket in the kitchen. I soaked the material in the sink and used the kitchen island as my work table. I then cut the 1/2" material for the bottom/sides. The instructions called for 5/8" but I only had 1/2". I improvised by adding extra material (i.e - 14 strips for the length instead of 12 and 8 strips for the width instead of 6).

Making the basket: It actually was a pleasure working on this basket. I highly recommend white ash. I sometimes get frustrated with the material I am using. It might be too thick (then I have to use a knife to thin it down), the weaving might not be aligning the way I want it to , a weaver might split or brake, etc. This stuff did none of that. I did have to make sure I dipped the basket material in water more often than with reed.

Halfway up the sides I had decided I wanted to add a walnut dyed chain design using some 1/4" weavers. I had a walnut dye bath in a large kettle out in the backyard. I brought it in and set it on the stove to heat up. I then added the needed weaving strips. As the dye bath was heating it let of a strong odor. When my daughter returned home from work she was complaining the whole house smelled like curdled milk (I did have the heat on a bit high under the pot). She then preceeded to open all the doors and windows. I did not care. The dye bath produced a very nice color for the material. As I was weaving in the chain design I decided that since the chain looked so good I would just dye the entire basket the same material. At least I would not have such a white basket.

The handles were easy to install. I have a handmade awl that works real well in separating the material. I made sure there were two weavers in the center of each handle. It made them more even based on the side weavers.

The weaving seemed to go by fast today since I was also watching the original War of the Worlds movie, Red Dawn, and the current superman movie.