Fine basketry skein work repair… unequivocally the most nerve wracking project that I’ve ever taken on!

This most beautiful and very fragile basket, sent to me from the USA was an amazing challenge to clean, mend, conserve and do as invisible a repair as I possibly could.
The fine skein work basket, most likely made in the Low Countries in Europe could date back into the 18th Century (examples of this type of fine basketry can be seen in paintings from the late medieval period onwards). A stunning rich patina, which on closer inspection revealed was created by at sometime during its long life a varnish having been applied. On the plus side the varnish had acted as a glue and given this very fragile basket a whole new lease of life, but it also made it much harder for me to repair.

This basket comprises of 3mm wide ‘skeins’ (fine lengths of willow that have been cleaved and shaved into silk like ribbons). The only reference that I could find to any similar style basket was in one of the Basketmakers’ Association Journals where it was purported to take around 60 hours to recreate (and that was by a master basketmaker).

I rebuilt a lid, reattach both lids, mended broken or missing skeins on the basket sides and so to increase the baskets future longevity, I created new skein work all around the base rim. With all the repair work done but visible I worked with multiple shades of wood dye, painted the new willow, often layering several coats of dye to achieve the colour and depth required.

It was very important to the client to keep the aged slight wonky character of the basket and handle, not affect the patina in any way and show no signs of my repair work.  We decided to just stabilise and not replace missing skein work on the handle. I could potentially see a whole can of worms opening up if I had attempted to replace skeins on the handle that I feel would have significantly changed this baskets wonderful character.

I learnt so much from repairing this basket and now have even more admiration for fine skein work basketry than before!

Photos: first row shows the repaired basket, second row shows the basket before being repaired, third and fourth rows shows the repair process. 2025.