I had envisioned a change of technique at this point, however, the piece seemed to lend itself to using the thicker copper wire as stakes once again, this time by hooking them at 2.5cm intervals under the top coil. Each stake was secured to the coil by compressing it with pliers.
I continued by weaving with the blue electrical wire as before but this time using a weave called ‘waling’, usually used for the ‘upsett’ (transition between the base and the side) on a basket. After about 7 rows of waling I’ve introduced a simple pairing weave. I’ve tried to use the longest possible lengths of wire as weavers, which are not so long they are unmanageable; this is to minimise the need to add in new weavers when they run out as, unlike natural material like willow where the ends of weavers can be worked into the weave to create a smooth transition, the blue electrical wire ends tend to protrude a little from the weave even if cut at an oblique angle.
To complete this vessel I’ve finished the weave with the blue electrical wire but decided to accentuate the attractive copper wire by extending the stakes and pinching using a pairing weave with the extra fine 0.2mm copper wire. The scale is variable in this final piece by using the fine copper wire to for detail.
To complete a traditional basket, the stakes are turned down and woven into a ‘trac’ border; using this technique with the copper wire stakes, I worked one row but have continued with this weave back down the length of the stakes, undecided about whether to leave the stakes opening out into an spiral or whether to continue with the weave until they have expired.
Oonagh Corr 