pine needle baskets Archives

Wanderlust Pine Needle Basket

It’s time for an update on my adventures in making pine needle baskets! You can see my original post here, my 2nd set of baskets here, and my 3rd set here.

This basket here is my most recent, and possibly my favorite so far.

I made a leather and fabric bottom and I dyed the pine needles a fun aqua blue. I’ve found the trick to dying the pine needles is to dry out green needles in a dark area and that will turn them a really light green which you can then dye and it works better than trying to dye brown needles.

For the lid, I used a dyed pine cone and wrapped the pine needle coils all in raffia. I picked the beads up locally and they are actually made from coral.

So there you have it! These baskets are really fun but it is almost hard to find time to create them because I have way too many hobbies. Do you ever feel that way?

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Adventures in Pine Needle Basketry – part 3

Hey guys, Happy Tuesday! It’s time for an update on my adventures in making pine needle baskets! You can see my original post here, and my 2nd set of baskets here.

I’ve made a couple more recently so I figured I’d share photos of them!

I decided to try making a vase shape, and I am super pleased with how it turned out. While I’m pretty sure it won’t really hold water (I’d have to find some way to seal it.) I still think it’s amazing and could hold fake flowers. Haha.

I did a “meandering coil” around the vase, and added some fish beads that I got at a local craft show.

Something cool about making pine needle baskets is that I learn new things on every one! There are so many different stitches and techniques to experiment with!

On the basket below, I made a basket center out of resin! I started by making a mold with the Amazing Remelt mold, and then added Amazing Clear Cast resin and put a piece of rosemary in the resin. Once the resin was dry, I stabbed holes in it with a small awl.

As you can see above, my basket collection is really starting to grow! The only 2 baskets I’ve made that aren’t pictured there are the 2 below, the owl basket and the Southwest themed basket whom I’ve found new homes for.

I’m working on a new basket as well, It should turn out neat- it uses dyed needles! 🙂

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Woodland Animal Inspired Pine Needle Baskets

Making pine needles baskets is a fun new hobby of mine, I like to work on them while I’m watching a Star Trek episode, or just chilling out. It’s relaxing.

I shared my first 4 baskets here on the blog already, but I just finished both of these and I wanted to share them as well.

It wasn’t planned, but they both ended up being inspired by woodland animals. I created the center for the first basket from clay and as I was deciding what to put on it, my obsession with foxes just sort of took over. Same with the owl.

A friend actually wanted to purchase a custom basket, and she told me to just “surprise her” when it came to colors, design, etc.

I decided to use a hand painted leather center and as I picked up my paintbrush I just decided it wanted to be an owl. I found the beads in my stash and liked the way they looked so I added them on as well.

I’ve only made a total of 6 baskets so far since I started making these but I’ve learned so much! I learned how to make handles, which I added onto both of these baskets.

Have you ever tried making pine needle baskets?

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Adventures in Pine Needle Basketry

I’ve already mentioned that I spent a week staying with my Aunt and Uncle in Colorado last month. They live up on a mountain building an off grid house, which is pretty cool!

Anyhow, while I was staying with them, my Aunt taught me how to make pine needle baskets! She has a couple of ponderosa pines on the mountain so that’s where we collected the needles from.

So far, I’ve made 4 baskets and learned a lot making those! My first basket definitely isn’t perfect because it took me a little while to figure out how to keep the stitches tight. Here are my baskets, in order of when I made them (starting with my first):

This green basket is perfect for holding tiny embellishments!

The basket below I created for Taylor. We picked up the beads while we were in Sedona, AZ they were perfect for the southwest inspired theme of the basket.

This basket is my most recent and one I tried something fun on- I dyed the needles before I made the basket! I just used RIT liquid dye in fushia to end up with this nice auburn color. I picked up those arrow shaped needles at Michaels.

Because the arrows remind me of a breeze, I’m calling this one “Mountain Breeze”. I haven’t named any of the others yet though.

Have you tried making pine needle baskets? They take a little bit of time, but I love working on them while watching movies or tv (star trek episodes!).

Also, I’m curious- Would you be interested in purchasing handmade baskets? I’m also considering posting a tutorial.