Natural Vine Basketry
Because vines have always been readily accessible and plentiful for weavers, it has been a common choice for basketry purposes. The runners are preferable than the vine's stems because they tend to be straighter. Pliable materials like kudzu vine to more rigid, woody vines like bittersweet, grapevine, honeysuckle, wisteria and smokevine are good basket weaving materials. Although many vines are not uniform in shape and size, they can be manipulated and prepared in a way that makes them easily used in traditional and contemporary basketry. Most vines can be split and dried to store until use. Once vines are ready to be used, they can be soaked or boiled to increase pliability. Grapevine in particular should always be boiled because of its propensity to attract mites.
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