You need

• Junk paper, magazines, newspaper, etc.
• a stick: wooden skewer or 3.5 mm knitting needle or any kind of equivalent stick
• “molds” like plastic tubes to form the rings, a glue stick or a lip balm can do the job (you should be able to pass your finger into the ring), for the handle, you need a bigger one, a jar or a bottle for example
• white liquid glue
• cutting tool (knife, scissor, etc.)
• clamps or clothe pins or anything similar (optionnal, you may need them when you attach the sides to the bottom or together).

The finished basket

The ligatures make the basket stronger.

How to

The rings and the handles are made with straws of paper.

The straws of paper

First you need to make the straws. Cut the paper in strips.

Roll the paper using the stick. Begin at an angle, until the end of the strip. You will only have a corner to glue.

End of the straw

You just have to glue a small corner at the end.

Take of the stick and make other straws. You need a lot of straws.

To make a longer straw: glue a straw and insert it into another straw.

The rings and the handles

The rings are made with two straws. Flatten them, then roll them around the small tube gluing as they go along. Let them dry.

A bowl of rings

The handles are made with 3 or 4 straws rolled around the bigger “mold”.

The handles

Two bigger rings, bigger enough for your hands.

Determine how many rings you need

As the rings are not perfectly equal, their sizes vary, the best way it to make a series of them. Then to align the necessary number of rings to reach the length and the width. For example, for this basket:

• bottom: 25 cm x 23 cm, I needed 8 rings for the length and 7 for the width: 8x7 = 56.
• longer sides: 13 cm x 25 cm, 4 x 8 rings twice = 64.
• smaller sides: 13 cm x 23 cm, 4 x 7 rings twice = 56

Total: 176 rings.

How to determine the number of rings

Join the rings

The rings are glued together and joined with a paper ligature.

To make the ligatures, cut the straws in half and flatten them. You will need something like the same amount of ligatures than the one of rings.

Glue and roll them around two rings. Each ring has 4 ligatures, except the rings of the tops of the sides.

A quartet of rings

Each ring has 4 ligatures.

Begin by the bottom. I suggest to join series of 2 or 4 rings. That will give time to dry and make the work easier.

The bottom of the basket

They remind me of some moucharabies.

Once the bottom made, do the same work for the sides. Join one side to the bottom, then another side. Join these two sides together, repeat for the other sides.

This will be more easy to do if all the parts are dried.

Add the handles

You want them to be free to move. Protect them with plastic, that way, the glue will not stick them.

Join it to the basket with a straw like you did for the rings.

When it is perfectly dried, remove the plastic.

A view on a handle

The handle is free to move but firmly attached to the basket.

You are done!

Finishing

I like this look, so I did not make another finishing. But you can paint it, varnish it, or even (I did not try though) wax it or add other embellishment you want.

Just a tip: if you want the handles with another colour than the basket, paint them before attaching them to the basket.