One of the most popular projects on Make: Projects originated on the pages of CRAFT when it was a print magazine: the Woven Map Basket. Weaver Jane Patrick (who was previously editor of Handwoven magazine and is currently creative director for Schacht Spindle Company) wrote a simple how-to for taking old maps, slicing them, and weaving them into baskets. I’m a big fan of old school paper maps, particularly wilderness topo maps, and am thinking this would make a fun gift for my backcountry friends. While I would be remiss to chop up a perfectly good new map, I have no shortage of maps that have taken a beating on many treks, and this would be a great way to creatively recycle them. Of course you can use any paper you like: comics, yearbooks, magazines, etc., as seen in the second shot below. Jane even treated the surface of the basket on the right with melted beeswax for a muted, aged appearance.
16 thoughts on “Weave Your Old Maps Together”
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My wife has a small zipper pouch, made from flexible tape measures woven together. Metric vertically, English horizontally. Nice look.
What a great idea! Does she have pics of it posted anywhere?
She bought it at a surf store (the Boneyard) on Martha’s Vineyard. It looks a lot like this one: http://www.wardrobesupplies.com/products/measuring-tape-zippered-pouch
So cool looking with all the numbers, and looks easy enough to make!
She’s a math teacher, so it’s appropriate, too!
I wonder if you could print out strips in such a way, that when woven together, they recreate a image?
Neat idea, Scott!