Basket Making
Swills
This type of Basket is different from other types looked at so far, in that the structure of the basket is made from cleft strips of wood rather than withies. This basket has several regional name variations such as spelk, spale, slop swill or skip basket.
The weaving of baskets from strips of wood, known as spale, has been carried out since prehistoric times. Baskets resembling spale were used as corn baskets in the Iron Age, and in later times they have been used by potato pickers, and to hold coal, firewood and Charcoal.
These baskets were traditionally
produced in northern Britain, particularly in the Furness area of
Cumbria. Hazel, oak, birch and ash rods can be used for the frame
or bool. Although the baskets are strong and useful, their laborious
construction hastened the craft's decline.
A steamed rod is bent to form a circular or oval hoop, a bow or
bool, forming a rigid rim for the basket.
The materials used to construct the basket base are coppice-grown oak, about 6" in diameter. The raw material of oak poles are sawn up into suitable lengths, before being boiled and then cleft into quarters. They are split or cleft, or riven, again using a froe until the wood becomes strips of about 1-3" wide and about 1/16" thick. Finally, they are trimmed & smoothed with a drawing knife on a shave horse.
These strips, or 'spelks', are immersed in hot water to keep them soft and to allow them to be bent without breaking whilst the basket is worked. Light spelks, chissies or ribands, form the weft of the basket, with heavier spelks forming the warp, to create a deep-bowled basket. In heavier duty baskets like those used for coal, coke or firewood, the warp may be made of round wood like hazel, for added strength.
