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Pine needle baskets are often created using a coiling technique. In coiled pine needle baskets a bundle of pine needles forms the core of the coil and is stitched in place with various fibers such as raffia, split roots, birch paper, basswood inner bark strips, dracena, yucca, embroidery thread, yarn and waxed linen thread. Many artists enjoy facilitating the reincarnation of nature's refuse into beautiful and useful pine needle creations. Pine-needle crafts don't require special equipment. The materials, pine needles, raffia, a sewing needle are inexpensive or free and are all you really need. This type of basketry is also quite portable which allows you to take a project along with you as you travel.

There are many types of pine needles used in basketry. The length of the needle is an important characteristic, with some varieties reaching 18" in length. Shorter needles may be used, but doing so requires replenishing the core bundle more frequently. One of the most commonly used needles is the Long Needle Pine, Pinaceae Pinus palustris.

If you are going to collect your own materials, gather the pine needles in the Fall. Select the newly fallen needles or the brown needles that you can pick from a branch. Avoid using green needles before drying because they will eventually dry and shrink, producing a loose basket.

Once you have gathered your needles, wash them in warm soapy water and dry them in a warm shady spot for several weeks. Place them on a window screen to allow air circulation around them. If you dry them in the sun the color will bleach out. Drying in the shade retains more of the color. Once the pine needles are dry, you can also dye them with a fabric dye such as RIT. Just follow the directions on the package. Once the needles are dry bundle them to store or lay them in a shallow box. Align the sheath ends and bind with several elastic bands.

Needles used for the basket start should be moistened before use. Soak them for a short time in hot water and then wrap them in a moistened towel overnight to mellow or moisten evenly. Use the moistened needles within a day or two to avoid mildew. Refrigerator storage can lengthen the usable storage time. The needles used in the body of the basket should not need to be soaked and in fact might mildew or cause the basket to be loosely woven after the needles dry. As a rule of thumb add no more water than necessary to keep the needles as flexible as required to do the stitching.

There are many starts for coiled pine needle basketry. You can choose to start your work in a simple overhand knot or doughnut. Other choices would be an oval start, a drilled wooden base, black walnut slice, teneriffe woven ring, a four hand plaited start and a figure eight start. Each type makes use of a core bundle of pine needles that is stitched together row on row. Needles are added as you progress to maintain a uniform size core bundle.

As you build your base you will need to add or splice in new sewing materials. Decorative stitches and wrapping techniques are used to make the body of the basket strong as well as beautiful. Stitches can include things like a straight wheat stitch, spiral wheat stitch, fern stitch, popcorn stitch, numerous knot stitches and many variations of wrap stitches. Each will give a different effect and can be used in a myriad of combinations.

The sheath ends of the needle bunches can be cut off or used for decorative effect by leaving them partially exposed while stitching. Beads or other embellishments can be added to the stitching for decorative effect. Shaping your piece is accomplished by varying the placement of the core bundle and stitching angle. Straight sides are achieved by placing the bundle directly on top of the last row. Rounded sides are achieved by placing the bundle at a slight angle to the last row and varying the angle of your stitch. Baskets can be made it a wide variety of shapes, can be open or lidded and may be traditional shapes or sculptural pieces. Coiled pine needle techniques can also be used to create embellished gourd vessels. In this case rows of coiled pine needles can be stitched on to a gourd that has been cut open and possibly dyed, painted or decorated with pyrography.

Many books and workshops are available to help you learn additional pine needle basketry techniques. I have assembled a pine needle basketmakers directory with links to active basketmakers, with a presence on the Web. Many of these basketmakers also teach. Contact them if you would like to learn more.

I will leave you with additional resources and links to online instruction. If you have information to add, please post your comment to the bulletin board or contact me.

More Pine Needle Basketry
Wide selection of pine needle basketry resources including supplies, books, techniques, projects, tutorials and connections to pine needle basketmakers.