Exquisitely beautiful hand crafted rattle. Woven from purely organically grown hand harvested Scottish willows, and filled with Hodmedodd's organic Carlin peas grown in Shropshire, England.
The rattle is woven using a spiral technique and 5 well matched willow rods. The handle bulges out at the end for better grip in small hands. The willow has its own honey like scent.

First I select 5 rods as identical as possible and tie the butt ends (where the willow was cut from its parent plant) with a very fine willow. Then I start to weave in a counter clockwise direction, over two each time, bringing the shape outwards as I go. After a couple of inches I start bringing the shape in, and add the Carlin Peas before the shape is too small! The weaving carries on to form the handle, and flows out again at the end of the handle before I tuck the willows away under each other to finish off and seal the shape.
The rattles are made using all natural willow organically grown in Scotland by me. Willow is a natural and renewable resource, being cut every winter once the leaves have fallen, then graded for use in basketry, fence making...and rattles in this case!

Handmade by Basketweaver Anna Liebmann.

I make functional baskets and teach traditional basketry in Edinburgh and beyond. I make these rattles in my workshop overlooking the sea, as a small taster of willow weaving past and present. The willow is soaked in water for a few days then left overnight to mellow, as in basketmaking, then it is ready to weave into baskets, rattles, and more!

Also available on my Etsy shop and Folksy shop.