- 1
Digging in the garden image by dquinnan from Fotolia.com
Gather the horsetail roots by digging down three to four feet into the soil around the horsetail plant. Carefully pull out the roots and stems. Rinse the plants and roots in water to clean off all the dirt. Cut the horsetail roots with a sharp knife into pieces as long as possible, and organize the root sections by their diameters. - 2
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Split the thicker, shorter roots with the knife as you would cut a carrot in half lengthwise. The roots are hard, so caution and patience are needed. - 3
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Cut a 1½-inch piece of split root. Cut a 24-inch piece of hemp fiber and tie it to one end of the 1½-inch root. Place a 4- to 6-foot piece of split root next to the 1½-inch piece of split root so that the tied end of the short root and the thicker end of the long root line up. Wrap the hemp around both roots tightly until just before the end of the shorter root. Thread the free end of the hemp fiber through a sturdy needle and move it out of the way. - 4
Root image by D'or from Fotolia.com
Coil the longer root once around the shorter root in a flat spiral. Using the needle and hemp thread, sew the thread around both horsetail roots until they are secure. Space the hemp threads wide apart or very close together, depending on the look you would like for your basket. Continue coiling the horsetail root around itself and sewing it with hemp fiber to form a disk wide enough for your basket's base. When you run out of thread, cut another 24-inch length of hemp fiber and tie it to the outermost coil. Repeat as needed. If the starter root is too short to finish the base, splice the end of the first root to the end of a new root. To do this, cut one inch down from the end of the new root almost all the way across, leaving only a ¼-inch flap. Lay the flap over the old root and line up the end of the old root and the cut portion of the new root. Wrap the two tightly together with hemp fiber; then continue to coil the base. - 5
vannier image by Philippe LERIDON from Fotolia.com
Cut a new length of horsetail root as long as the outer coil of the base. Stack it on top of the outer coil of the base and sew the two coils together with hemp fiber. Continue to cut, stack and sew roots on top of roots to make the walls of the basket. To make the walls taper in, cut each new coil slightly smaller than the one below; to make the walls taper out, cut each new coil slightly larger. - 6
Basketry image by Evgeny Berdjansky from Fotolia.com
Create a lid for your basket by following Steps 3 and 4 to form a flat disk of horsetail root one coil's width wider than the top of your basket. Stack and sew 1 to 3 layers of horsetail root around the edge of the lid to create a short wall to serve as the lip of the lid. - 7
vanneries image by Philippe LERIDON from Fotolia.com
Cut three pieces of horsetail root three inches long and arrange them together parallel and stacked so that they form a triangle when viewed from the end. Weave them together using the hemp fiber. Place the lip of the lid on your working surface with the top facing up. Sew the three woven roots to the center of the top of the lid with the hemp fiber and needle to create a knob.
Congratulations. You have finished your horsetail root basket.
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