soaking basketry willow
The art of soaking willow is a rewarding skill to learn. Over time, you will begin to recognize the signs that your willow is soaked correctly. Under-soaked willow will have wrinkled bark, kink easily and crack when you bend it. If your willow is over-soaked the bark will be soft and damage easily.
soaking
A plastic or metal livestock water tank makes a perfect soaking vessel. If you are making baskets you will need to be able to soak lengths of up to 6ft, perhaps longer for large baskets, so a 6ft tank would be ideal for your purposes. If you are soaking in a cold climate it helps to insulate the tank. Water temperature and climate can greatly effect the length of time for soaking. We use an aquarium heater, sized for our tank, to keep the water at 78ºF. You may find a scum develops on the water surface over time, we scoop this out prior to checking the willow, changing the water and scrubbing the tank between soakings.
To check your willow, remove a rod and bend the butt end at a right angle, it should not break. The bark will be smooth for the most part and small white spots may appear up the length of the rods, meaning water has penetrated the core.
mellowing
Once your willow is soaked, remove it from the tank, open up the bottom ties from your bundles and let the surface water drip off. The willow should be wrapped in a moistened cotton sheet and then loosely covered with plastic or a tarp. You will need to mellow your willow, wrapped in this moistened sheet, for two days. Check on it every day, moving the bundles around and airing them out so that mold doesn’t form on the bark.
working with soaked willow
Now that your willow is soaked it’s important to maintain the moisture in the rods by keeping them covered, especially if you are working in a dry environment. Often when soaking you will require different lengths of willow for one project. You may stagger your soaking times, allowing more time for the long lengths, or soak and wrap the shorter rods until the rest of the lengths are ready for weaving. The other option is to store your mellowed willow in a chest freezer until you are ready to use it.