Sake
White Oak Basket, 5.5" x 4" x 2"
Up on the Porch Roof, Portland Maine
This white oak basket was made to hold a ceramic sake set that I made last October. This is the second iteration of this basket.
The first, not pictured here, was made of reed and rather unsuccessful. However, it was instructive as to the difficulty of making squarish corners.
As seen in the sketch, this one was better considered and better planned. The uprights are 1/2" wide white oak, while the weavers are 1/4" white oak. The basket's weave is a straight forward over-under stop-start weave.
Of special interest is the rim which is a length of #3 round reed wrapped with 4-ply natural waxed linen. This treatment gives the basket an interesting texture which I feel compliments the basket's weave, as well as the sake set's dark reflective glazing. The contrast of the dark sake set to the natural white oak has a sort of yin/yang element that hopefully helps to unite the piece in a pleasing whole.
The sake set itself was designed on a 2" module, and is slab built. As each cup is meant to sit close to its brother a container, or 'home', for the set seemed warranted. The final product attempts to use contrast to bring harmony to the various materials.
See more about the Sake Set in Other.