Indigo Blue

Do you get side tracked when you are doing something and the next moment something else totally takes over?  It happens to me all the time. I needed a scallop basket for a gift. It was going to be a plain basket using natural canes. Out of the blue I thought um, what if I dye the cane indigo blue? So there, off I went dyeing the cane with Ritt liquid dye in indigo blue. I was happily dyeing along then suddenly I thought why not dyeing some indigo moons? The end of that day I had indigo moons and indigo cane for the scallop basket. The thing is, this is not the basket I had in mind for a gift! Now I have to make another one for that gift...! 

A few weeks ago one of my students came back from Japan and he brought me back a bag of little pieces of silk offcuts. They were mostly in white and cream, but they are perfect to use in indigo moons. Above is the result of those little silk pieces indigo moons.

This is an Indigo basket. It is going to be my first piece of furniture for my future studio. With a trip to Japan earlier this year and my love of Japanese textiles plus my love of indigo blue influenced  by Jude Hill I decided that my new studio will be in indigo blue and white. I am planning a BORO quilt using vintage kimono fabric. You can see some of them in the basket ready for me to start. 

Back to the indigo basket. This style of basket is called scallop basket. I made 12 or so of them a few years ago. I gave them to my quilter friends and I called them quilter's baskets. It is a reproduction of an antique basket that was brought to Australia by the European migrants. A lady at Basketmakers of Victoria took an old and broken basket apart and rewrote the instructions for us to reproduce. Don't ask me why, but it is easy for me to make them. Above is the base of it. 

The spokes are woven for the rim and folded down to form the base.  I weave them together to form the stand.  I must tell you about the tool kit roll you see above. It was a gift from DIL who is a trained sculptor, making craft on the side while she is home looking after the family. 

The access spokes are trimmed and the body of the basket is now ready for the handle. When the cane is dry this basket is very sturdy and strong. It's great for car travel because it doesn't fall over on the bumpy rides. 

One of my friend's husband is an engineer and when he saw this basket he asked if I actually made it? When I told him I did, he turned it upside down looking in and out and said "It can't be, this basket is a totally impossible engineering structure!" Haha! I hope that was a compliment! 

Here is the complete basket with handle and all. What I need now is that studio to go with it LOL! I have more of these baskets to show you in my next post.