Time it takes to make a basket

It takes approximately ten hours to gather enough birch bark to make 20 baskets (½ hour is added to the making of each basket). During this process, one has to travel on the highway or river for sometimes two to three hours searching for the right stand of birch trees, one that has plenty of birch trees that are straight and have few knots. Each tree is tested to see if it has the right thickness and is pliable. Peeling a small amount of the bark off the tree will determine this. Once enough birch is gathered, it brought back to town and prepared.

Steps and hours required make a one large birch basket:

• Scrape, sand the bark, cut the pattern, and draw the design – 4 hours
• Sort and dye the quills – 3 hours
• Quill the design – 4 hours
• Gather and prepare (peeling, splitting, and trimming), spruce roots – 5 hours
• Basting the basket together – 2 hours
• Put the basket together with the root – 2 hours

Total Hours – 20.5

**These hours are based on an experienced craft person making the basket. For a beginner it would take considerably longer.