Background
My mother recently won a hamper in a prize draw. The hamper was an open top wicker basket with an unusual and very beautiful 'roll-top' edge. Unfortunately one of the two wicker handles at each end of the basket were damaged in transit. It seemed a shame to not try to repair the basket and make it usable again so i thought a little DIY was in order to make it usable again. Without repairs or replacement handles the basket would be usable but it would be difficult to carry which sadly would mean it would be less likely to be regularly used. With a little ingenuity and using some old cord left over from a window refurbishment 30 years ago the basket has been given a new lease of life.
The basket originally came with two stiff, vertical wicker handles. One was damaged in transit.
The wicker handles were weaver into the 'roll-top' edge and the horizontal sides of the basket.
The handles, both the damaged and undamaged were carefully removed by prizing apart the pieces of wicker and pulling the handles out taking care to minimise any damage to the structure.
Using sash window cord left over from a window refurbishment project in 1988 new handles were made by twisting together two lengths and carefully threading them through the locations of the original wicker handles.
On the inside of the basket the two lengths of cord were knotted and trimmed.
To prevent the knots coming undone small blobs of hot weld glue were applied to hold the fibers together.
When the glue had fully set the ends of the knots were further trimmed to improve the cosmetic appearance of the handles.
With just an hour or so of effort the wicker basket had a new set of handles and hopefully many years of useful life ahead. The handles are strong and stiff and if they ever fray or wear out, they can easily be replaced again. Fortunately the colour of the cord used matches the wicker colour well so the overall cosmetic appearance is very good.