Do you have kudzu nearby? It’s a free source of vines for crafting baskets and wreaths.
Photo: Sarah Hitchner
These baskets and wreaths have a wild look to them coming from such a wild plant.
Sarah Hitchner made the one pictured here. She says she just experimented with the vines and stuck them together. I think they look interesting, almost like sculpture.
If you want a free, handcrafted, natural gift for someone special, this could be it! The basket is very arty by itself, but you might want to fill it with something like any gift basket. I think a wreath would look best unadorned, but that’s just my opinion. These vines remind me of the stacks of antlers intertwined as arches at Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
A basket or wreath from these vines would look great in many types of decor. It looks like something that would be expensive in a gift shop, and the material s are free! It takes some work of course.
Hand crafted one-of-a-kind items are very much in demand. You could easily sell these as a side business. Be sure to charge enough to cover your time in getting the vines and making the wreaths or baskets.
Try selling them on consignment at local gift shops or at craft fairs. You could sell them on etsy.com, but the shipping might be too high for most people. Since it’s free to sell there it wouldn’t hurt to list some just in case.
Click here for a tutorial at Know It All. You will need boots and gloves and 3 pieces of kudzu about 45 feet long each. This takes work! The basket in the tutorial is a tighter weave than the one shown above, but you can make any variations you like. Personally, I like the ones that look a little wild–as kudzu vines are very wild!
Check out some of these creations for inspiration!
June says
I want to learn to make baskets of kudzu and of other things growing in the woods