PROJECT 27

WIRE BASKETS

This is a neat project, which makes a useful basket—which you can use to organize or meet some metalworking requirements on a scouting merit badge.

I like them for gardening, as I can easily wash my fruit and vegetables off with the hose before I bring them in the house.

The Materials

Material:

•   2’ x 10’ Hardware cloth

•   26-gauge Floral wire

•   Metal Coat hanger (Optional)

•   Rubber hose (Optional)

Tools:

•   Tin Snips

•   Needle nose pliers

Procedure:

1.     When designing your basket you need to allow for the sides. We are going to make a 5-inch deep 8 by 8 inch basket to carry in our vegetables. Since the sides will fold up we will need to cut out a piece of wire that is 18 inches square.

Screen cut into a cross shape

2.     Using tin snips cut this into a cross shape with 5 inch squares taken out of each corner. This will make eight inch “wings” that stick out on each of the 4 sides.

Fold into a box shape

3.     Make your creases/folds along the “wings.”

4.     Cut the floral wire 1.5x the size of the side you’re going to connect. This means for a 5 inch seam, cut the wire 7.5 inches (or 8 if you want extra).

Thread wire to sew edges

5.     Start at one end, and pull the wire almost all the way through leaving about 1” of slack to wrap around that first corner several times before weaving up the side. (5.1. Hitting every square looks better, and makes a stronger basket, but you can save time by only weaving every other square if you desire.)

6.     Lastly, trim the ends of your wire, and tidy up the basket.

7.     If you desire you can make handles by cutting up a metal coat hanger and using needle nose pliers to create loops on each end

8.     You can make the handle fit your hand better by sliding a rubber hose (like an aquarium hose) over the coat hanger before attaching it to the basket.

Basket full of growies

Lesson Learned:

This is a great geometry starter; looking at how a flat surface can be made into a three dimensional object can be really intriguing for someone with an active imagination. This is a cheap project so it lends itself to experimentation.