Arts and Crafts
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Guyana
Weaving baskets, mats, hot pads, and other useful objects is a craft typically done by the Amerindians of Guyana. In Guyana, the natural products available are used for weaving--finely stripped wood, or grass and straw. You can weave a mat with the products easily available to you, even if it is only cardboard boxes!
Woven mat (Cattail version)
Materials needed:
Cattails
Cardboard
Thumbtacks
Gather cattail leaves by cutting them close to the base with a heavy scissors or garden shears. Spread cattails out on newspaper in a warm, dry place for one to two weeks, until they become brownish green in color.
Soak dried cattails in water for 15 minutes before using. (A large cooler filled with water could be used to soak them.) As you take each cattail for weaving, run it between your thumb and finger to remove excess water and air trapped in the leaf.
Take a cattail and lay it vertically on a piece of cardboard that is as wide as you want your weaving to be. Thumbtack the cattail in place. Thumbtack cattails in place across the cardboard. Leave some space between the cattails so that you have room to weave.
Now take cattails and begin to weave them horizontally across the pinned cattails. Thread the cattails over and under the vertical pieces. Leave the ends hanging out so that they can be tucked under when the mat is finished. On the second piece weave under and over, opposite of the first cattail that was woven in.
When you have a nice square or rectangular weaving, remove the thumb tacks. Then carefully bend the ends over and tuck them into the weaving.
Woven mat (cardboard version)
Materials needed:
Old cardboard boxes, cut into 1 ½ by 12" strips using a utility knife and straight edge
Yarn
Take six strips of cardboard and lay them vertically in front of you. Now take another strip, and weave it over and under the vertical pieces of cardboard. Take another piece, and weave it under and over, the opposite of the first piece woven.
Weave six piece of cardboard through, so that you end up with a square mat. It may be easier to work from the middle to the outside when weaving, rather than from top to bottom.
When the square has been formed and adjusted, take a long piece of yarn and weave it around the outside edge, twice around, to keep the cardboard in place.