Stains and Oils

Below are my answers to some common questions about stains and oils used on baskets.

Weaver's Words - September 30, 2007

About stain, oils, etc.

When I used to weave a lot of reed baskets I if I were to stain them I always used one of the Minwax stains. Usually I would dilute the stains with mineral spirits/paint thinner as reed absorbs stain very quickly and you can end up with a very dark basket in short order. Also, by diluting the stains I could achieve lots of different shades. I would also sometimes mix colors to get ever more shades. A personal pet peeve of mine is to walk into a basket booth at a craft fair wherever single basket is the same color. It just makes all the baskets look generic to me, but as I said that is just my personal preference. 



I never used any "oil" on the bodies of any baskets that I make, I will use boiled linseed oil/turpentine on my handles and rims of my black ash baskets, but never on the weaving. There is a lot of misconception about things called "oils", these aren't oils in the way one thinks of mineral oil or baby oil. Oils such as tung, linseed, Danish, etc. are actually wood finished and seal the fibers instead of "moisturizing" them as I think weavers are intending to do to their baskets.



Here is what I found on the internet concerning these "oils": Tung oil is made from the pressed seed from the nut of the tung tree. Tung oil is considered a drying oil much as linseed, safflower, poppy and soybean oil. When applied it provides a tough, highly water-resistant finish which does not darken noticeably with age as does linseed oil.

Tung oil is also sometimes called “China wood oil”. It has been used for hundreds if not thousands of years in China to seal decorative and marine wood as well as porous masonry.

"Danish oil" or Polymerized Linseed oil is, in its unadulterated/pure state, a non-toxic, wood finishing oil, similar to Tung oil. However, like tung oil, it is often used in various finishes with the addition of solvents or other substances, that are often toxic. Polymerized Linseed Oil gets harder and more durable with age. Buff occasionally with a soft cloth. Now, I am not saying any of these or products that contain these are necessarily bad for your baskets, but I just want to make sure everyone understands that they aren't making their baskets more flexible, but are actually sealing their baskets from breathing. While they may make your baskets look wet, they aren't actually increasing the moisture level of them.

So to actually answer [the] question probably the only true best finish for your basket is NO finish at all. A light dusting with a soft brush and a mist with water is the best way to preserve you reed baskets. If you want to add color to your basket you can always use something water soluble like tea, coffee or other dyes. (The above does not apply to Nantucket baskets which traditionally have a hard finish applied to them in the same way a piece of wood furniture would be finished) 

NEVER OIL [OR STAIN] AN ANTIQUE BASKET! The only time you want to oil an antique basket is if you want to remove any value from the piece as you will destroy the natural patina of the basket.

Also never wash or soak an antique or even a new oak or ash basket. Use the method I describe above, use a soft brush and a light mist of water or even better rotate them through the bathroom so that the steam from the shower hydrates them.

Hope this helps answer a few questions out there.

Basket Bits Feature

If you haven't seen it yet, I am the featured artist in the current issue of Basket Bits magazine, #67-August 2009. Here is an excerpt from the article.

What drew you to basket weaving?

I grew up in a family of creative people, who were always making something. When I was little and would go over to my grandparents, I would draw pictures and my grandma would make them into stuffed animals. Basically we made stuff all the time, so I grew up with the idea that if you had an idea in your head you could just make it in 3D.

My mom owned a fine needlecraft store where she also carried other current craft trends, like stenciling, folkart painting, etc., which gave me the opportunity to dabble in various arts and crafts. Making baskets was a perfect fit for me because I could start with a concept and a pile of wood strips and in a few hours I would have this completed basket. Like my grandma, who would take a few scraps of fabric and make a bird out of it for me to play with, I could now take a bunch of reed and make it into something that was only in my head.

Beyond all of that I am drawn to the repeating and rhythmic patterns in baskets. I have always been drawn to the repeating shapes in nature like the veins in leaves or the spirals in shells. I find the process of weaving to be relaxing yet exciting as you watch the basket take shape.

Applying Finish to a Finished (completed) basket

Another question I get asked often is about applying finish or varnishes to baskets. Of course these are just my opinions, ask 10 basket makers and you will get 10 different answers.

Weaver's Words July 9, 2006

In general you will want to leave your weaving materials unfinished and un-oiled. Anything that is going to seal your basket from the elements is also going to seal it from the moisture it needs to breath and remain flexible. Just like starch makes a shirt look nice, but wear out faster, so does finish on the fibers of a basket. Woven baskets, by their very nature, flex and move, any kind of hard finish is going to make the fiber stiff and more prone to breaking. About the only baskets that are traditionally "finished" are Nantucket baskets and sometimes coiled pine needles (but I don't prefer them to be). Oiling a basket (not tung oil or boiled linseed, which are actually finishes, but something like mineral oil) may seem like it would make the fibers more flexible, but oils tend to attract dust, which will also shorten the life of the basket. If you want to oil the handle or rims that is fine as they don't need to "flex" like the body of the basket. So in summation, it is better to leave your natural fibers (which reed is) just natural.

I will post sometime about how I like to finish my Nantucket baskets. It is a multi-step process, but I think gives a great result. Until then, happy weaving.

Martha Wetherbee Workshop 2009

Wow, I can't believe another workshop has already gone by. It seems like I was just getting the classroom area setup for Martha's classes and now it is time to get cleaned up and ready for JoAnn Kelly Catsos' classes that will take place at the end of the month.

As always everyone had a great time. It was blistering hot up until the last day, with heat indexes around 110 degrees. My air conditioning was running overtime and I am frightened to see what my electric bill is going to be this month, but at least we stayed cool. We had 15 students, including myself, taking two classes over four days. The first was a continuation of a series of nested Nantucket baskets and the other a larger version of a Bushwhacker basket we made last year. I finished up my nesting set of nine Nantucket baskets by making the smallest, #0, which was about 2" in diameter and woven with 1.25mm cane. I also made a 7.5" diameter Bushwhacker basket that my 5.5" basket from last year fits in nicely. I was very pleased with how both basket turned out, especially the Bushwhacker.

In the near future I should be posting all of my class photos on my main website JASkets.com with descriptions of everything we were doing.

The plight of the basket tree

I ran across a great blog posting by Mike Reichenbach about the battle to save the ash tree in the United States. If you live in an area where ash trees grow please consider helping out with this project.

Collect seed now to keep ash trees in Minnesota

September 16, 2008

Emerald ash borer (EAB), an invasive species, threatens to kill Minnesota’s ash trees. In response, Andrew David, a University of Minnesota forest genetics researcher, and Mike Reichenbach, forestry educator with University of Minnesota Extension, began a project to protect the genetic diversity of ash in Minnesota.

Black ash stand near Cohasset, MN

Seed collected from wild-grown ash trees will be sent to a seed storage facility in Colorado. This is a proactive response to the presence of EAB in the upper Great Lakes region and the lack of a viable quarantine method to keep Emerald ash borer out of Minnesota.
Ash seed has been ripening all summer and will be ready to pick when the seed coat is brown. Collection of seed will begin in the next 1-2 weeks (around the end of September 2008) and can continue through much of the fall. Black ash seed will fall with the leaves while green ash seed will remain on the tree for awhile after the leaves have fallen. It will be easier to collect from trees before the seed is scattered by winds and rain. Persons wishing to collect seed should watch the ash seed collection webinar found listed under the webinars tab at the following website: http://forest.nrri.umn.edu/ash. The ash seed collection form can also be downloaded from this site.
Minnesota is host to three species of ash: white ash, green ash and black ash. While white ash is an upland species found along the Mississippi River in southeast Minnesota; both black and green ash are common lowland hardwoods found throughout the majority of the state. Ecologically, black and green ash are the most important hardwoods in the lowland forest community. They represent 51 percent of the lowland hardwood cover type in Minnesota. Black ash is very important in native cultures as a source of wood for ash baskets. Both black and green ash provide a source of pallet, saw and veneer logs. All of Minnesota’s native ash species are threatened by EAB.
EAB was most likely introduced to the region when it was transported on wood packaging of an overseas shipment from Asia in 2002 to the Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario area. Within the United States the insect is most often transported on firewood. As of August, EAB has been found in Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Ontario, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It has been responsible for the death of over 20 million ash trees despite quarantines on moving nursery stock and firewood out of infected areas.
This conservation effort will preserve the genetic variation for a future point in time when EAB can be controlled and ash species can be reintroduced to Minnesota using locally adapted seed sources.
For more information contact Mike Reichenbach, (888) 241-0724, reich027@umn.edu; or Gary Wyatt, (888) 241-3214, wyatt@umn.edu, both with University of Minnesota Extension.

Reprinted with permission from MyMinnesotaWoods.org

If the current population of ash trees are wiped out, if we can save seeds and replant, it will be 50 or 60 years before mature trees are available again. This would be devastating to all black/brown ash basket makers. Hopefully we can eradicate the emerald ash borer before total destruction of the trees.

White Oak Melon Baskets

Dee and Dennis Gregory from Tennessee are white oak basketmakers and prolific teachers. Not only do they make beautiful baskets, but they also make wonder weaving kits. I purchased these awhile back and finally found time to make them. Now I have to say at best all I can claim is to have woven these baskets as all the ribs were already in place so all I had to do was finish weaving over/under to fill in the space. That is not to say it wasn't fun working on these as I so rarely get to use white oak. With white oak basketry having such a long tradition here in Missouri I feel badly that I haven't explored it more. As with so many things, "maybe someday, when I have some free time."

Both of the baskets I would call "melon" shaped in stead of buttocks or gizzard as many white oak ribbed baskets are since they don't have the bulbous shaped sides. The darker stripes in the baskets are from the naturally darker heartwood of the tree with the lighter weavers from the sapwood. Over time as the baskets darken the difference in color will become less and less noticeable, but it will be years before they get that kind of patina. The smaller of the two baskets measures about 4" in diameter and now hangs on the basket tree in my weaving room. The other oval shaped baskets measures about 7"x5" and hands from a peg board over my picture window.

Black and White Basket

This basket was woven using a puzzle mold and kit from Marlys Sowers of Iowa. Marlys' husband Jeff turned the base, lid and one-piece rim which were dyed black using India ink (something I had never heard of doing before). The staves alternate between natural and dyed flat oval reed and it was chase woven with natural and dyed Hamberg cane.

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy this basket was to weave. Because of the shape of the puzzle mold the staves did have to be tapered on both ends which took some extra time, but setting up the base was as easy as alternating between the two colors (Marlys recommended gluing the staves into the base, but I never do that on my Nantucket style baskets so omitted that step myself). While the weaving pattern looks like it would be complicated, after weaving the first row where I had to count each "stitch", all subsequent rows were just a matter of following the pattern below. The contrast between the natural and black makes this a truly striking basket.

I also purchase another smaller mold and with a cherry wood lid and staves kit along with another cherry lid and rim set for the larger mold. While the kits are not inexpensive the materials are of superior quality and the resulting baskets unique additions to any collection.