Thompson's White Oak

Picnic Basket

A total of 3 years in design techniques resulted in this basket.   Made of White Oak, the basket has 65 ribs in the body, with the lids being constructed with spoke and weavers to achieve the wagon wheel look.

Different colored white oak strips can be used to make a chain pattern in the body of the basket with matching design on both of the lids.

The lids use Round White oak spokes which are made using an old German technique. When the early settlers came to America from the regions of Europe, they made baskets out of willow osiers. These osiers were produced by planting the shoots of willows in fields, laying the long pieces down in the rows, and letting the shoots sprout from the buds.  It took 2 to 4 years for the osiers to grow to the size for basket work. They continually had to plan ahead to keep a supply for their basket making. When arriving in America, the settlers could not find any suitable osiers for their willow basket work, so they devised a method of splitting the White Oak Saplings into small square billets, putting varied sizes of holes in a piece of hardened steel, made by a blacksmith. After sharpening the ends of the long billets, they pulled the pieces through the piece of steel until they got the diameter of the osiers which they used in their homeland. So, the round rod construction by using White Oak was invented in America. Today there are just a handful which go to the trouble of using this technique, as it it quite labor intensive. We use the same method to round our small white oak billets for ribs on the lid of the picnic basket.

The basket lids use 2 solid pieces of White Oak in the middle, attached through the wide handle by whittling pegs that extend through the handle. Both lids, when open, fit underneath the handle to give you access to both sides of the basket.

(pk1745)

PRICE

$425.00

[Price does not include shipping]

To order this basket contact us by clicking HERE

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