Monday, March 3, 2008

Underwater Basket Weaving

Somehow, this mythological subject has become synonymous with frivolous undergraduate majors. And yet, I have always kind of been interested in weaving baskets, especially under water.

OK I lied about the under water part. I actually am afraid of large bodies of water to some degree - it all comes from that time when I was little and I almost drowned because a big wave hit me, I fell under, and every time I tried to stand up another wave hit me. It was pretty scary. Now I don't go in above my chest. I'm okay in swimming pools and the Dead Sea, but otherwise I stay where I can stand comfortably and out of rough waves. Surfing is Right. Out.

Anyway, so I decided to make some baskets out of copper wire I have lying around. I thought maybe I could use it in one of my ceramics projects where I have to have something hanging off the wall. My first attempt was kind of bad, so I didn't take pictures. Here's my second attempt:





Not so bad. It doesn't look as sturdy as it is. I am pretty confident that if something were inside it, it wouldn't fall out as long as the basket were held at the proper angle (ie: hung from a wall). It's kind of like a cornucopia or a sconce.

Weaving a basket out of wire is very, very difficult. First of all, the poking - oh, the poking. My poor tips of fingers that don't have any sensation anyway due to years of piano lessons were being poked and poked and poked. I used pliers but I was still poked. Second of all, the kitty thought the wires were wiggling as part of some kind of game, so I had a kitty batting at the wires as I tried to weave in and out and in and out. Thirdly, the wires are very stubborn and wouldn't make a nice, tight basket like I had imagined and I ended up with this object that looks like something out of a Tim Burton movie.

3 comments:

chanpheng said...

It kinda looks like a three-dimensional pencil squiggle. I think it looks really neat. In spite of the difficulties in molding it, the lines still look strong, and you let them fall where they should. Copper, or any wire, can get kinked if you tried to get it to lie perfectly but then move it too much.

robin said...

Haha I like that idea - a 3d doodle!

Kirsten said...

Cool! Very cool. I thought baskets were made by machines... or robots.

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