They also range in sizes from the ones measuring 3 feet in diameter to the tiny 0.25-feet collectables. Although baskets can be manufactured by machines, the ones woven by hand using natural fibres are high in demand. They usually have distinct tops and bottoms but are essentially continuous surfaces. 

Baskets are often used in many cultures to gather, store and serve dry food. Liquids can also be retained in waterproofed baskets. Techniques of basket making are also employed for creating hats, clothes, and mats. In some modern homes, baskets have become a desirable item for decorations.

History

Nearly all the native people have baskets as a part of their heritage. The way they’re made may differ according to their customs and traditions. The ancient Mesopotamians described baskets as children of the gods and the basis of earth. Their belief about the origin of the world was associated with baskets. According to them, a wicker raft was placed on the oceans with soil spread on it to create landmasses.

Bakers used baskets to store baked loaves of bread in ancient Egypt. The most famous of all baskets was the one in which baby Moses was transported safely. Almost all the ancient civilizations produced baskets. The best examples would be the Roman baskets and the ones made by the ancient Chinese and Japanese. Basketry also gave rise to the art of pottery, as the earliest pots used baskets as moulds. 

The archaeologists have observed that the histories of pottery and basketry are interwoven. Many ancient pots unearthed by archaeological excavations showed patterns of baskets used as their moulds. These patterns became pieces of evidence where vegetable fibres didn’t survive the test of time.

Raw materials used

A wide range of plant fibres is used as raw materials for making baskets. They include twigs, grasses, roots, cane, basket willows, and reeds. For the colouring of baskets, hobbyists use vegetable dyes. This is mostly when they’re imitating the historic baskets. 

Concentrated cloth dyes are used in manufacturing modern baskets. The ones that need a solid bottom and handles also use wood beside the main item for weaving. Many hobbyists purchase basket-making kits for creating some fantastic baskets. 

Raffia and rattan are used mostly as a substitute for grasses and rigid fibres. Raffia is a fibre obtained from the raffia palm, found in some Southeast Asian countries. Rattan is a tropical palm and its stems and leaves are used for making baskets.

Design

The character of every basket is determined by the fibre that’s used for making it. One must get the appropriate fibres to create baskets of certain designs. Usually, fibres are flat, round, or flexible. Flat strips can either be twisted around stiff rods or woven together. 

Flexible fibres are wrapped around each other in order to form a coil. To create the sides of the baskets, the coil is stitched to itself in a rising spiral. The designer has to determine which fibre is available and then plan the making of a basket accordingly. Designs of baskets can be based on a sample basket or photos.

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There are a few different products and tools that would make this work easier and faster for you. Here are some of these tools and products that you must definitely try when painting your furniture:

1. Palm sander

For removing old finishes and getting down to the bare wood, a palm sander is highly effective. It saves you plenty of time and effort. A palm sander with finer grit sandpaper is a great combination for slightly scuffing a furniture piece before painting. Many individuals who work on furniture on a daily basis have found palm sander extremely useful.

2. Primer

The number of coats that you paint on a piece of furniture can be reduced considerably by using a good primer. It not only saves your time but also gives the paint a surface to stick to. This is essential to have a stronger finish. A shellac-based primer stops wood grain from bleeding through while using mineral paint. A small can of primer can be used to fix areas that bleed through the first coat of paint.

3. Tack cloth

Even when you’re sure of having cleaned all the wood dust, some of them go unnoticed. Using a tack cloth, you can get rid of the dust that enters into the finished coat of paint. Today, you’ll find the best deals on tack cloth on any of the leading online shopping portals where it’s available.

4. Sanding sponge

A sanding sponge is a foam that’s wrapped in sandpaper. It protects your fingers as you get into the edges while you’re busy with your sanding work. A sanding sponge is quite inexpensive and usually lasts longer.

5. Mask

Many individuals are fascinated by antique and vintage furniture items and love to have them in their homes. However, the old pieces are often covered in grime, dirt and other stuff that can be hazardous. So, it becomes necessary to wear a mask while preparing a piece of furniture. It must also be worn if the cleaner or paint you’re using instructs you to wear a mask.

6. Paint sprayer

Painting every nook and crannies can be an exhausting task. For painting furniture items with a lot of detail, you can save time and effort with a paint sprayer. Besides, spray paint makes a furniture surface look elegant, which is quite difficult to achieve with a brush.

7. Quality brushes

Using cheap brushes often result in more brush strokes and can make it harder to get a clean edge. Considering this fact, it would be a good idea to get good-quality brushes. They last longer and give the edge of your furniture piece a nice, clean look.

8. Hemp oil

One of the best ways to seal a natural wood finish is to use hemp oil. It brings out the rich and natural beauty of the wood and is absolutely safe and easy to use. Polymers like polyurethane create a topcoat that scratches or chips after some time. This can be avoided with the use of hemp oil.

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A craft can be described as a physical manifestation of the internal creative impulses of humans. There are a few types of crafts that can be found across the world. Here, we’ve tried to cover the most popular types:

1. Papercrafts

As it is apparent from the name, paper crafts are created out of paper. Millions of children across the world get introduced to paper crafts during their preschool days. Using paper, they create several items and hand-printed designs. A more grown-up version of this type of craft is linoleum and wood engraving. Paper-making, calligraphy, and papier-mache are some of the other popular papercrafts.

2. Decorative crafts

The most common forms of decorative crafts include basketry, furniture making, stained glass, and metalwork. Decorative crafts also include gilding, stencilling, toy making and a few other arts. Unlike all the fine arts, decorative arts have an element of utility associated with them. Usually, the final product in this category of crafts is a piece of decor. 

A chair provides a space to sit and it can also be a beautiful piece of furniture. One of the popular trends in recent times is combining metalwork and furniture-making. Home decor and arts and crafts magazines often feature contemporary items of furniture. They are constructed using wood but have certain parts with amazing metalwork.

3. Textile crafts

Knitting, weaving, dyeing, quilting, and applique are some of the examples of textile crafts. They include any type of craft that uses yarn or fabric extensively. Many of the textile crafts also fall into the category of fashion or decorative crafts. This is because the finished products are often sold as wall hangings or sweaters. 

Since they all begin with the fabric, they technically fall under textile crafts. Among the other examples of textile, crafts are the Japanese art of ‘boro’. It is a form of decorative repair that combines textiles from various sources. The Japanese decorative stitching is called ‘sashiko’.

4. Fashion crafts

This type of craft covers all elements of dressing, such as garments, jewellery, shoes, hats, bags, belts, and wallets. It naturally involves other types of crafts. For example, jewellery can also be categorized as metalworking and garments can be considered a form of textile craft. A wide range of materials is used in fashion crafts. 

They include soft fabrics like cotton, wool, and linen to stronger materials like nylon, canvas, and leather. When it comes to making a garment, sewing is just one aspect. The designing of that particular garment can be a multi-step process involving careful attention to detail.

5. Functional crafts

The four types of crafts described earlier can also be classified as functional crafts. For instance, decorative pottery involves the creation of utensils that are suitable for daily use. Many of the furniture pieces can be quite decorative and can be functional at the same time. To attract a wider customer base, it is always a good idea to have functionality built into the craft.

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It requires some effort to create these wonderful paintings or designs. Besides, one cannot create such works of art without using all the essential items required for it. Given below are the items used for this purpose:

1. Canvas tote bag

It’s quite obvious that a plain canvas tote bag is essential for creating the desired painting or design. The artist can get the idea of colour and contrast correctly with such bags. There are several artists who prefer painting on coloured tote bags. Their advantage is that they would already have a background colour ready to get started. 

The size of a canvas tote bag to be used would depend on the preference of the artist. Generally, medium-sized bags are used by beginners. The bag must not be crumpled and wrinkly as this would make it difficult for the artist to paint. To get a smooth and stretched surface, it must be ironed lightly.

2. Paint

There are several options in paint to be used for creating art on canvas tote bags. Among them is the acrylic paint, which dries faster and allows the addition of layers or crisp lines. Oil paints take longer to dry, but they can be blended well with the colours. As the oils can degrade fabrics over a period of time, the canvas would need some preparation. 

One of the benefits of oil paints is that they don’t lose their original colours when they dry. Although not so popular, watercolours can also be used for creating paintings and designs on canvas tote bags. They are used especially for creating abstract or dreamy paintings.

3. Brush

Each painting requires some specific brushes for the best results. If the acrylic paint is being used, a longer and sturdier brush would be required. Synthetic brushes are also recommended as they are quite resilient to the chemicals in acrylic paints. Natural brushes would go better with watercolours and oil paints. Beginners usually start with one small and one large round brush with one small and one large flat brush.

4. Palette and palette knife

In order to mix the paints while painting, either a porcelain palette or a professional palette is used. The palette knife would be essential if the artist uses acrylic paints. It helps in mixing and spreading the paint. The palette knife can also be used to apply paint on the canvas. 

Some of the colours can be mixed using brushes. However, when acrylic paints are used, the use of these brushes may result in altered bristles. This is because the acrylic paint is thicker and rougher. 

5. A cup of water

To begin painting on a canvas tote bag, a cup of water would be needed. It is essential that the base of the cup be larger or the same size as its top. This prevents the cup from falling over and ruining the painting. If the artist doesn’t have a special water cup for painting, one of the mugs at home can be used. If the artist uses fluid acrylic paint, it must not be diluted a lot with water.

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These materials ensure that the colours and patterns don’t fade away. Explained below are the materials used to paint the pieces of clay pottery:

1. Slips

A slip refers to a liquefied suspension of the particles of clay in water. It is used for colouring the pieces of clay pottery before they’re fired. Either white slips or coloured slips tinted with oxides are used for painting the pottery. Some of the potters preserve the remaining slips. They are best used on greenware that is wet. 

There are certain benefits of using slips. If the potter commits any mistake with the slip, it can be cleared off easily. This method of painting matches the shrinkage of the clay. So, there’s less worry about the heavier stuff popping off while firing or drying. A good visual impact can be created on the pottery pieces with slips. 

2. Underglazes

Effects that are similar to watercolour paintings done on pottery can be created by using an underglaze. It must be thin enough and contain colourant in the right quantity to minimize fading. The semi-moist underglazes are relatively easier to control than liquid underglazes. Liquid underglazes are used to create effects that are more like the ones created by acrylic colours. 

When using such underglazes, it is best to work in layers. Many of them do not achieve full strength until three layers are used on the surface of the clay. One important thing to note is that dark colours have the tendency to bleed through overlying layers. This happens even when they cannot be seen before firing.

3. Glazes

For many years, potters have been using glazes for painting ceramics. The best example in this regard is the glaze-on-glaze painting used in the majolica traditions. Several areas of the ceramics are painted using glazes of varying colours. 

This particular method has one major problem. There’s always a possibility of the glaze flowing after becoming molten when fired. This can cause the design to become indistinct at the edges or disappear completely into an underlying glaze.

4. Oxide stains

This is an excellent method for adding broad areas of colour and painting flowing lines. There’s always an option of using stains that are commercially prepared. Such stains are chemically stable and safe to handle, as they are made using fritted material. Otherwise, stains can be simply earth oxides mixed in water. They are quite difficult to handle. 

Some of them are fickle and would change colour depending on the other elements present in the glaze. The best example here would be chrome oxide. It is generally a green colourant, but it can go pink if the glaze has tin present in it.

5. Fingernail polish or acrylic paint

The use of fingernail polish or acrylic paint can also produce effective results. They are non-ceramic materials and can be useful especially for this type of painting. Among the two, acrylic paint is used most commonly. Both these materials are not soluble in water once they have dried, unlike the other paints. The only major problem with these materials is that it’s hard to visually integrate them fully with the clay.

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The fabric must be pre-washed so that it is free from starch and shrinkage. After washing, it must be dried and ironed. When this is done, it would be ready as a base material to be painted using fabric colours. Here, we’ve described some of the best techniques used in fabric painting:

1. Tie and dye

This is quite an interesting technique for painting fabrics. The fabric is twisted, folded, pleated, or crumpled and then wound around with a sturdy thread. An alternative for the thread would be a strong rubber band. Using paints with a watery consistency, certain areas are painted and left to dry. 

The wound fabric is then opened with a particular pattern or design on it. Natural dyes can also be used instead of fabric colours in this technique.

2. Wet into wet

This technique involves merging and blending colours and shades in a watery consistency. Once dry, multiple applications can be painted without picking up the underlying colours. Lightweight fabrics are the most appropriate for this technique of painting. The biggest reason for this is that such fabrics allow liquid paints to spread rapidly and naturally.

3. Block printing

This is an old technique of painting and making impressions. In this technique, wooden blocks with letters, motifs, patterns or any other engravings are used. These wooden blocks are then dipped in fabric colours or natural dyes and pressed neatly on the fabric. Next, the borders of the fabric are printed. Block printing technique is used extensively in the textile industry for garments, upholstery, and other products.

4. Salt technique

In this technique, coarse salt or fine salt is used while painting. A particular design or pattern is painted on a piece of fabric using paint with a watery consistency. While still wet, salt is randomly sprinkled. Once the fabric dries, the excess salt is shaken off. Stains that are left by the salt create a unique design on the fabric.

5. Spray painting

One of the easiest techniques of fabric printing, spray painting involves the use of watercolours. In this technique, compressed paint is created by filling a can with fabric paint. Then, the paint is sprayed to sprinkle water colours on the fabric. Stencils can also be used in spray painting. 

The stencil is placed appropriately on the fabric and the paint is sprayed on it from a distance. Then the stencil is carefully removed, thus creating a design almost effortlessly. This technique of fabric painting can be used to design T-shirts, curtains, cushion covers, and other items.

6. Sun painting

This is a very natural technique of painting using fabric paints. In this basic technique, the heat and light of the sun are used to get the final result. The fabric is painted and spread directly under the sun while still wet. Then the elements are placed aesthetically over it for creating the intended design. 

The element can be a feather, flower, leaf, stencil, or motif. Once the fabric dries under the sun, the elements are removed. This leaves the painted fabric with impressions of the element with a faded or faint appearance.

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