Make it Now: Carry Spring Indoors

Enlarge Image Image Gallery All of the materials needed to make moss baskets are available at craft shops, except for the fresh branches. To ensure freshness and pliability, cut the branches just before you make the basket. Spirea and low-bush blueberry work well, but any fresh, pliable, twiggy branch will do. Ned Williams

Here’s the perfect project for celebrating the beginning of spring and the end of a long winter. Making moss baskets is fun for everyone and can be an ideal way to introduce children to crafting. This basket takes just an hour to make and can be personalized with pieces of lichen, bark, acorn caps or dried flowers. You can make it any size and with or without handles.

Having a dinner party? Decorate each guest’s place with little moss baskets filled with pots of fragrant herbs, miniature daffodils or tiny roses. Or cluster the baskets in the center of the table with votive lights tucked around them, then give them to guests as gifts at the end of the evening. Use a large basket as a centerpiece, overflowing with potted herbs, hand-colored eggs or fresh strawberries on a bed of clean straw.

Materials

Several sheets newspaper

Two or four 15- to 20-inch twiggy branches, leaves removed

Three 12-inch pieces of #28 florist wire

One 8-inch shallow round basket (without handle)*

Pint of white glue

Plastic container for glue

Green sheet moss, about 28 inches square total

2-inch foam brush

Optional: dried leaves, lichens, small pieces of bark, nutshells, acorn caps, ribbon, raffia, dried flower heads and petals, strands of beds

*I like to use inexpensive florist baskets often called "Chinese rice bowls," available in sizes from 6 to 14 inches across.

Attach the Handle

1. Attach first side of handle. To attach the branch handle to the basket, first bend one piece of wire into a large U-shape. Select a basket rib, then lay the cut end of one of the branches inside the basket on top of the rib. The base of the branch should rest on the slight curve of the rib.

Holding the bottom 2 inches of the branch firmly against the rib with one hand, place the ends of the wire on either side of the branch, then push both ends through the basket weave. Pulling the wire tightly against the branch, twist the two legs of wire tightly together where they emerge on the outside of the basket.

2. Secure attachment. Thread the two wires back through to the inside of the basket, one leg emerging on either side of the branch. Twist wires sharply against the branch. Repeat the threading process, working the wire up the stem as you push and tightly twist. Continue until the branch is firmly woven or "shoelaced" to the inside of the basket. Trim off any excess wire, then tuck the sharp ends under the branch.

3. Attach second side of handle. Use a second piece of U-shaped wire to attach another twiggy branch to the rib at the opposite side of the basket. (If either branch isn’t full enough, wire an extra branch to the same spot.)