Merry Christmas 2019, dear blog readers! 

It feels like the year had just begun and we are already at the end and looking forward to a new decade! Time does fly, doesn't it? 

Anyway, in the Christmas tradition, I decided to do something in the traditional colours of green and red. I had rolled a number of newspaper tubes some time back and had been wondering on the project to work on. So I decided to go ahead with the new style of weaving that I have been trying out these days. In case you, dear reader, haven't had an opportunity to see what I have been up to, do check out this blue leaf tray that I had done a few months back. Also check out the previous box and lid, done using the same red/green tubes. 

This style of newspaper weaving, called coiling or root-weaving, is tedious but results in really cool newspaper products that are absolutely eye-catching! The weave is without any form, so it is with some trial and error that I manage to do this style of free-form weaving. 

This bowl or rather, tray is about 7.5 inches in diameter and made entirely from newspaper tubes, coloured red and green. As with my previous blue tray attempt, here too, I attempted to paint both plain tubes and tubes with print still visible. Since the colours were both dark ones, I was able to obliterate most of the print after painting the tubes twice. With a single coat of paint, the colour is not very rich and the print is clearly visible. But with a second coat, the colour also becomes richer and most of the font are pretty much invisible! And what little is visible, is hardly seen in this style of weaving anyway! So that was a good discovery for me.

In total, to make this bowl, I have used a total of 50 plain green tubes, 25 green tubes with print visible, 100 plain red tubes and 30 red tubes with print visible. And as expected, with this style of dense weaving, the end product is very robust and strong. A coat of polyurethene and I have an absolutely amazing product!

So what do you think?

Model Details:

Model: Coiled Christmas Bowl

Difficulty Level: Complex

Tutorial (making newspaper tubes): Youtube

Tutorial (coiling or root-weaving technique): Youtube

One of the traditional methods of basket-weaving involves a technique called coiling. This technique combines a process of coiling materials such as grass and binding them together using flexible fibres.

The same process can be applied to tubes made from newspaper or magazines. Here the tubes are used in both the processes - they are wound and held together by other tubes. I first came across this technique of weaving in Pinterest and have since been fascinated by the method.

When I got an opportunity to try it out, I first attempted it using newspaper tubes. Needless to say, it wasn't much of a success! My coiling was loose and the tubes that held the coils together were not placed close enough to give a tight weave. And once you fail, even in something like craft work, it takes a lot of courage to get back on the proverbial horse, doesn't it?

So, after many months and with a lot of hesitation, I tried out this blue tray, in the shape of a leaf. The tubes are made from newspaper strips, around 10 mm in width and 260 mm in length, rolled around a 2mm skewer. I painted it prussian blue, since that was the colour I had in abundance! This time, since I knew what to expect, I was able to coil much better. Overall, it gave me much better results than my first attempt. The shaping is still a problem and that takes more practise I guess. On the whole, I am quite pleased with this attempt.

While this technique is more challenging than regular weaving, the result if much more pleasing. But I would not attempt this type of weaving unless I had a lot of time, because without doubt, it is much more time-consuming that the regular weaving that I do. This tray took me a good 3 days to complete! And that is just the coiling part. Time taken for rolling the tubes, painting and glazing the final product also needs to be considered.

Model Details:

Model: Coiled Blue Leaf Tray

Difficulty Level: Complex

Tutorial (making newspaper tubes): Youtube

Tutorial (coiling or root-weaving technique): Youtube

This blue bowl is the first large-sized bowl that I have tried, that has come out reasonably well! The problem with bowls that I have found is that, while the start is pretty standard with the help of a form, it is inward curve at the top that causes trouble.

The reason being that a form can no longer be used! So this is more of eye-balling the correct curvature so that the bowl is shaped uniformly. I have always had a problem with this and usually my bowls turn out a little too one-sided for my liking! So I am quite delighted that for the very first time, I have done a decent job and the bowl looks more centred.

I also like the way the edging has been done. The edge with a whole bunch of 'V's is more attractive than the usual edges that I use and gives a good finish to the bowl, I thought.

Model Details:

Model: Woven Bowl

Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Tutorial (making newspaper tubes): Youtube

A Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful moms out there! This Mother's Day, I had made a couple of newspaper woven heart containers (photographed only one though) to 2 special ladies in my life - my mom and my mom-in-law.

These two women have always been supportive of everything I do and have encouraged me to go after my dreams. They are both strong women and have been instrumental in helping me become stronger, both mentally and spiritually. And to these wonderful women, I wish a very happy Women's Day :)

To create these heart containers, I decided to use some lovely card stock paper with pink and blue hearts. Little Miss helped me pick out matching grosgrain ribbon for the bows. I went with an odd number of base tubes so that the dark blue/light blue combination would show up better.

I must say that forming the dip at the top of the heart was quite challenging. I still have to perfect it. Since the shape was something different, I ended up having to make a base form. This ensured that my piece did not go out of shape. I have finally got the hang of managing the height of the containers. So in the heart box, the height was pretty much consistent. 

So that's about it. I already have a couple of orders for making these heart boxes. So I'll get cracking and will be sure to post pics of the completed items. And once again, a happy Mother's Day 😃

Since my last couple of woven projects have been fairly successful, I decided to try out another shape - an oval container. I used a used oval ice-cream box as the base and started working on the box. My primary reason for trying out this shape was to figure out how to weave the base. Since the base is not circular, there are some calculations involved to figure out the initial weave.

Suffice it to say, for me, the base was a disaster (hence the absence of photos of the base!! 😀). But once the walls were formed, the task was much simpler. Since I had two shades of blue, I wanted to use both and so decided on using the Layer-wise Rope Style pattern. A detailed MK (MasterKlass, for the uninitiated) on Youtube (link below) by the talented Elena Tishchenko provided all the help I needed.

Overall, not too bad for a first attempt. One area that I really need to work on is uniformity of height! As is obvious from the picture, in some places, it is too short and in others, too tall! I also need to figure out how to hide the cut ends near the top edge. Well, practise makes perfect and I really need to practise! 😊

Model Details:

Model: Woven Oval Container

Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Tutorial (Layer-wise Rope Style Pattern): Youtube (Part 1, Part 2)