In a Few Minutes, you can be starting a highly-enjoyable craft and possibly a lucrative business... A 32,156-Word Course On Basket-Making in a Fully-Illustrated Ebook That Will Show You How To Create Beautiful Baskets From Rush, Raffia and Rattan (Includes 44 Projects) Learn the The A-Z of the Ancient Craft that brings The Ultimate Enjoyment for All Ages! Dear Friend, THE twisting and weaving of Nature's materials, grasses, twigs, rushes and vines, into useful and beautiful forms seems almost instinctive in man. Perhaps it came to him as the nest-weaving instinct comes to birds—for at first he used it as they do, in the building of his house. Later, shields and boats were formed of wicker work, but how long ago the first basket was made no one is wise enough to tell us. Today Indian tribes in South America weave baskets from their native palms, South Africans use reeds and roots, while the Chinese and Japanese are wonderful workmen in this as in other arts and industries; but basketry has come down to us more directly through the American Indian. Generations of these weavers have produced masterpieces, many of which are preserved in our museums, and the young basket maker need not go on long pilgrimages to study the old masters of his craft. Here at last, the value of manual training is being realized, and basketry is taking an important place; following the kindergarten and enabling the child to apply the principles he has learned there. He still works from the center out, and weaves as he wove his paper mats, but permanent materials have replaced the perishable ones, and what he makes has an actual value. Basketry also fills the need for a practical home industry for children; so not only in school, club and settlement, but on home piazzas in summer young weavers are taking their first lessons. Though they are unlearned in woodcraft, and have not the magic of the Indian squaw in their fingertips, they can, and do, feel the fascination of basketry in the use of rattan, rush and raffia. It is hoped that this book may be a help in teaching them "Basket-Making for Fun a Profit." Table of Contents Preface..................v CHAPTER I Materials, Tools, Preparation, Weaving..................3 CHAPTER II Raffia and Some op Its Uses..................11 CHAPTER III Mats and Their Borders..................21 CHAPTER IV The Simplest Baskets..................27 CHAPTER V Covers..................33 CHAPTER VI Handles..................51 CHAPTER VII Work Baskets..................65 CHAPTER VIII Candy Baskets...................83 CHAPTER IX Scrap Baskets..................101 CHAPTER X Birds' Nests..................113 CHAPTER XI Oval Baskets..................127 CHAPTER XII The Finishing Touch..................149 CHAPTER XIII How to Cane Chairs..................159 CHAPTER XIV Some Indian Stitches..................169 CHAPTER XV What the Basket Means to the Indian..................181