Making a Beaded Basket~ Where to start?

   I took this picture about an hour after my mind told me I was making a beaded basket~ I have never beaded a thing, aside from stringing beads for necklaces!  This is probably not the way to do it, but I figured, if they could bend a wire to make a neat basket shape in the 17th c, I could do it....right now.... and in my living room ;)   So first, I wanted to make a pattern of some sort~ I didnt have any paper large enough, so I grabbed a spare sheet of foam core and drew it out with a sharpie. No measure, just eyeballed it.  I am glad now I used that foam core, I used it thru the entire process, from making the basket itself, so using it for my template to fit my beaded designs to.   For the basket frame, I used lengths of brass brazing rod.  They are not so stiff you have to use tools or heat them to bend~but you do have to use quite a bit of elbow grease.  For the handles, I sketched my pattern on a scrap wood board and then pounded it out with nails every little bit, then I took about a 25" length of rod and bent it carefully around the nails for my handles

   Here is what my frame looked like after the little spot welds to get it together~ you can see the one required element for the competition in the center~ I used the smaller of the two ovals from the kit.  My Idea at this moment, is for an angel in the center, and to reproduce the floral panels from the Corning basket in each of the surrounding sections.  So she will be watching over her Garden~ the inner panels will be treated like the Corning with the white lattice between, but the outside and handles will be wrapped spiral like the Holburne basket.

   Underneath the white lattice, I want the basket to look like 'dirt', so am planing on wrapping it with silk I will dye to the right dirt color~ and so that the wraps are nice and tidy and all the same size, I will wrap the basket first with wool~ this will give the sections a bit of a cushion under the wrapping and give my needle and thread something to dig into.  I have loads and loads of wool for my dolls, this is from a handsome ram named 'Leo'

 I just grab a little and stretch it out and wrap it round on itself. The wool has been washed, but there are still wonderful little seeds and sticks here and there~ that I like to leave in~ it gives character!

  Here is the basket frame all wrapped~ you will notice alot of my pictures will be at night~ cause I literally worked day and night on this basket~ from August till the last day of December it took to get it finished~ I wont tell you how many hours, because I am planing a little giveaway later for you all to guess that, but yes! I kept track of every  minute of work, and YES! Every bead! So be keeping track in the back of your mind!