The Foraging Basket Course and Kit

Loved this kit and tutorial. I did it with two friends. It seems the willow branches were not as easy to work with as we’d hoped. We follow the prep to the “t” and found the branches to break very easily. But all in all this was a fun course.

Soaking was much harder than expected! I don't recommend this to cold weather beginners, I think it would be much easier to predict in temperatures above 60F. The kit did come with great instructions for weaving and plenty of extra rods for crafting even if some (a lot) snap! I would highly recommend at least skimming things before starting, since I had a few things I couldn't go back to fix (like kinks in the ribs)

This was the first basket I made. I enjoyed the experience and will definitely do more. What I found difficult: I don’t think my branches had absorbed enough water, I soaked them for 5 days and then let them sit for 18 hours before starting my project. While my test branches seemed fairly pliable, once I got to weaving I had a lot of snapped branches. Learning how to deal with the break without starting over would be a great tip to add to video content. The only other constructive note- I wish the handle on mine was thicker. With just 3 branches it’s feels rather delicate. If I were to redo the basket I may add a 4th branch to the hoop used for the handle.