Woven Soapdish: An Easy Project For Kids

Easy Woven Dish:  Kids Project      

I brought my 7 year old son with me to my basketry class one day thinking he would read his books or draw in his sketchbook while I worked on my basket.

Instead, my teacher/mentor/friend put him right to work on his own basketry project.  She had seen a woven soap dish in the Williams Sonoma catalog and decided to simplify and reproduce it.

Here’s how to do it.  It’s very simple!

Soak your reed in water for at least 10 minutes. Use any size basketry reed–whatever you have. (we used 2.75 mm)  First decide how big you want the circumference of your dish to be. Cut one reed to 10 times the length of the circumference you want. For example, if you want your circumference to be 4 inches (which is what my sons was) cut one reed to approximately 40 inches.  Form a circle and continue to wind the reed around that circle in a spiral fashion.

Now cut smaller reeds that will be woven into the circle.  Cut at least 20 reeds 2 times the length of your circumference–in our case 8″ and up to 30 for smaller sized reeds (e.g. 2.25 mm).  Cut more reeds as necessary.

Lay 2 reeds vertically on the circle as shown above.

Now the fun begins as you start the weaving process.  Horizontal reeds need to be woven thru the right side of the circle, the 2 vertical reeds and the left side of the circle.

Getting the first reeds in place is the trickiest part requiring very “nimble” fingers.  When doing this with kids (as my basketry teacher does) it’s a good idea to get the first 3 woven reeds done and then the kids can easily continue on from there.

Always start weaving coming up from the bottom and then continue thru the rest. (turn circle upside down and rightside up as necessary)

Now trim the reeds to the lengths that you want–leaving a generous allowance.  Do not trim too close to the circle (especially on the vertical reeds) or the reeds will fall out.

And of course you can use this basic recipe and make larger dishes or even platters.  Here’s some freshly picked limes…

Here’s some special gold and silver Stockmar beeswax crayons…

Or felted soap!

A woven dish for soap–or whatever!