Basket weaving

Tu Tangata, Issue 19, 1 August 1984, Page 32

Basket weaving

Because of the large number of Tu Tangata readers who replied to our questionaire asking for articles about maori craftwork, we’ve reprinted an aritcle about basket weaving, from Te Ao Hou No. 3, 1953. It is based on advice given by three kuia and partly on the account in Te Rangi Hiroa’s The Coming of the Maori. 1. When cutting flax for weaving never cut the complete bush. Leave at least the two inner leaves of each bush standing. Not only are these less suitable for the general run of jobs, but leaving them promotes growth. 2. The leaves are split in halves. Notice the water drops on the picture. Flax should never be wetter than this when cut for weaving. It may split the hands if picked just after rain. Intense sun is no better; it dries the flax too much. Frost makes it too brittle. The weather should be just right. 3. Stripping is done with the thumbnail. For this basket, the strips are used as they are now. The finer and more ornamental type of basket goes through the processes of boiling and dressing. By dressing is meant the scraping of each boiled strip with a shell to make it pliable and prevent curling. 4. The end of each strip is scraped with a paua shell to clear a tuft of fibre. 5. The tufts are braided into a threeply braid called whiri by means of strips added alternately on each side. 6. The braid is secured by an overhand knot at the end.

7. Work begins in earnest. Looking ahead to picture 9 we see the strips run in two directions. Sir Peter Buck called those pointing towards the right ‘dextals’ and those pointing towards the left ‘sinistrals’. For lack of a simple recognised term we shall have to use these complicated words in what follows. The ‘dextrals’ are separated into two sets. Every second strip is lifted up and the other kept down. The ‘sinistral’ is picked up by the right hand and placed between the top and bottom set of dextrals. 8. The sinistral is covered over by the top set of dextrals and the bottom set is raised by the left hand. This secures the sinistral and we are now ready for the next one. 9. One side is finished. As you see, just after the beginning a loop has been made to hold the work together. When both sides are like this, they are brought together and the free strips plaited together to close the gaps at each end to an even depth with the sides. 10. The free ends are plaited in a three-ply braid to form a finished rim.

Note the well-shaped base with a sharp edge at each end (koutu). These sharp edges are attended to just after starting to close the gap at each end. Beginning from the end of the whiri an equal number of strips are counted on each side and one strip on each side bent upwards at right angles. That is all. It is simple, once you know it.