That this book may be of help to the basket maker and that it may bring much success and happiness to the reader is the wish of the author who has spent many happy hours in preparing it.
CHAPTER I
EQUIPMENT
Materials
The materials used in making these baskets are rattan or reed, raffia, rush, straw, hemp.
Rattan is a palm which grows wild in India, Japan, China and East India Islands. The rattan seed is black and corresponds in size to a pea. It is a notable fact that, while growing, the rattan always faces the sun. The shoot of this seed grows four years; it is then cut close. The plant produces almost three hundred shoots which are cut annually. These slender shoots attain a length of from three to five hundred feet. They climb the highest trees and hang from them in graceful festoons. It is interesting to see how, like the selfish pumpkin vine, they crowd out any other plant that should happen to be in the way. By small fibres which spring from the joints, they
fasten themselves to the trees, and they hold so tenaciously and have such grip or strength that it requires several men, sometimes as many as a half dozen, to separate and remove them.
The reed is manufactured from the rattan. It has been manufactured in America for about sixty years. There are a number of such manufacturing plants, among which the Wakefield Rattan Company and the New England Company have made splendid reed. Germany and Belgium give us the best reed, while the least desirable quality comes from China.
The outer surface of the rattan is glazed. It is cut in long narrow strips, and is familiar to everyone under the name “cane.” It is used in caning chairs. From the pith or inside rattan, we get the reed known as oval, flat and round, the latter being most extensively used.