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Bob Mesibov, 20 February 2018
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These are the seven native plants I used for basketmaking in the 1980s:
(1) Acacia verticillata (Prickly Moses). Whole bark, dried and cut into strips and woven into a wide range of basket types. I selected trees growing in dense regrowth where the lower trunk was branch-free and the bark largely unbroken by branch-stub holes. Harvested at breast-height diameter 15-20 cm. (For production basketry I laced the rims with kangaroo leather thonging I had made for me by West Australian Tanners and Fellmongers.)
(2) Nematolepis squamea (Satinwood, Tallowwood). As for Acacaia verticillata, but from smaller trees, breast height diameter 10-15 cm.
(3) Huon pine (Lagarostrobos franklinii). I had Huon pine billets sliced into thin veneer sheets by Britton Bros at Smithton, then hand-sliced the veneer into long, narrow strips for weaving flat screens and curved, triangular table baskets (made with no bends or sharp corners).
(4) Melaleuca squarrosa (Scented Paperbark). 3-4 cm diameter sticks from dense tea-tree regrowth, used green for weaving fences.
(5) Pimelea drupacea (Bushman's Bootlace). Whole bark soaked green in water to remove poisonous sap, then cut into strips for plaiting, still green. This species varies a great deal in size and form, and in the wet forests of Circular Head I often found plants with base diameters of 6-7 cm and branch-free stems up to 60 cm.
(6) Parsonsia brownii (Twining Silkpod). Dried from green, then soaked in hot water and the leaf-node swellings cut off with a sharp knife before weaving. Exceptionally easy to weave into baskets, available in wet forest in lengths to 10-12 m with relatively little taper. Makes attractive but not strong or long-lived baskets, as the dried vine is brittle. I also tried Clematis aristata but found the sap of green vines irritating to the nose and eyes, and dried clematis split too easily longitudinally.
(7) Baloskion tetraphyllum (Tassel Cord Rush). Cut and worked green into table mats and window shades. Magnificent but little-used basketry plant. Below are my instructions for a mat. In swampy areas and on the West Coast I harvested stems up to 2 m tall.
I also wove with cumbungi (Typha sp.) but my preferred form was the introduced Typha latifolia.
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Table mats using Restio tetraphyllus (now called Baloskion tetraphyllum)
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Harvest any time of year, but winter seems to be best. Sometimes stems (even in swamp areas) are more brittle in summer.
Cut stems low, and top the tassels off in the field. Choose bright green stems with minimal taper.
Back in the workshop on the same day as the harvest (or the day after), work out approximately how many side-by-side stems from your harvest will add up to the width of the mat you want to sew.
Select that number of stems plus ca 10% (for wastage or excess) from the harvest batch, aiming for roughly constant stem diameter.
Arrange the stems side by side and alternating top-down and bottom-down. Adjust the stems so that for the mat height you want (say, 300 mm), you can see a line across the mat, ca 30 mm from mat top and mat bottom, which *doesn't intersect a joint in the stem*.
Cut off some surplus length above mat top and mat bottom, leaving ca 20 mm of stem as spare (will be trimmed off neatly later to mat top and mat bottom).
Sew the first line across. I use a special needle with a cross tip, rather like a very sharp Philips head screwdriver, and almost no swelling at the back end where the thread is slipped through. The thread is waxed linen. Twisting the needle back and forth between the fingers, *drill* each entrance and exit hole you make, so that the stem doesn't split as you pull the thread through. Line up the entrance and exit holes so that the thread crosses a diameter of the stem, i.e. the longest distance across.
Each line will need a thread about as long as 2 times the mat width. Pull the thread right through the first stem, leaving ca 100 mm outside the entrance hole. Sew through the next stem, and push the second stem back along the thread, but leave a 5-10 mm gap to the first stem (the mat will be tightened up later). Repeat until all stems are sewed across on the first line.
Sewing the second line across will be a little trickier, since you need to keep a constant distance between the 2 sewing lines. I use a couple of marks on my work surface to guide me, spaced at ca 60 mm less than the mat height.
When both lines are sewn through, carefully push the stems together and simultaneously tighten the lines. When you're done, the mat should be a constant width (because you alternated the tapers on the stems), with at least 100 mm of thread hanging outside each of the 4 outermost holes in the mat.
Trim the ends of sewed-together stems with a very, very sharp knife (or roll the mat up tightly and trim with a very fine-toothed saw) so the mat has a constant height. Cut back the loose thread ends to ca 30 mm.
Now for secret, craftsmen-only!-type stuff. You're going to add two end-stems which finish the mat and hide the thread ends.
Choose 2 stems which are a wee bit larger than the stems in the mat. Mark each one *on one side only* at exactly the spacing of the sewn thread lines, lay it next to the mat with the marks in their correct places and trim the end-stem to length so it exactly matches the other mat stems. Now, using the special sewing needle or a very tiny drill, drill the marked side of the stem to make 2 neat holes for thread entry. Using a thin bamboo skewer or something similar, ream out the stem hollow down to the level of the thread entry hole (you may need to punch through a joint to do this).
Carefully push an end of loose thread (or a loop of thread) from the mat into one of the holes in one of the end-stems, using something fine but blunt. Take a thin bamboo skewer, cut off one end square, and cut a 5-10 mm split out of that end with which to catch the thread. Insert the skewer into the reamed-out end of the end-stem, catch the thread deep in the split in the skewer, then twist the skewer to wind up the thread and tighten the end-stem against the mat. (If you pushed a thread loop into the hole, trim off the free end before the last twists of the skewer, so that the free end disappears.) When done, neatly trim off the skewer (I use nail clippers) where it emerges from the end-stem and put a small drop of glue there (I use contact cement), pushing the glue and skewer in with the flat part of a toothpick and wiping any excess glue off the end-stem.
Repeat for the other hole in the end-stem, and for the other end-stem. Allow a day for the glue to dry, and the mat is ready to use.
Obviously this trick can't be used on a third, 'internal' thread line across the mat, but for a 2-line mat it gives a very neat finish. The end-stems I use are big enough to allow a fair bit of thread-coiling on the inserted skewer.
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Dr Robert Mesibov
West Ulverstone, Tasmania, Australia 7315
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