Basket No 1 Newspaper

I have not made baskets in 38-40 years. But I do have made them in my childhood. It has became the time to breath alive this skill. This is the simply method of basket weaving which I did a lot as a child. It is called plain weave and I used free & commercial newspapers to make it. 

I used also approx 25 years old children's finger paints (acrylic, non-toxic) to paint the basket. I had yellow and orange left so I mixed them and had enough paint for the basket. I had to add also water to make it loose enough. So, that's how I chose the shade: orange.😅 

I paint it three times (and used all the paint). Then I used decoupage varnish. I put on 3 layers because the 1st one was absorbed immediately into the material. Also, the varnish was something I found from my stash.

On the begin I was a bit afraid of it gets too plastic and artificial outfit. I was happy to notice the text and prints is not 100 % hidden under the paint. Now it looks I have used some special printed plastic basket weaving reeds.

If using acrylic paint it is important to make sure the base of the basket has something under (in my case it is varnish) so that if it all gets humidity it doesn't loose any paint to the surface it is placed on.

I could have paint and used varnish or only varnish the inside. Instead, I wanted it to be visible which material I have originally used for the basket. 

That's because this is going to be a sample project for my basket weaving weekend course at work. More samples are to come and for sure you will see them here!