Ivy Basket

One thing I love about my crafts, is that I can get away with not spending vast amounts of money on presents because I can make them instead! I seem to be having a particularly low budget period (in other words I'm skint) so I cant afford many materials, but luckily I know a place where everything is  free! Nature!
I know the basics of basket weaving from a course a few years ago, and although there are no big crops of willow around here, there is lots and lots of ivy. There is something so satisfying and primal about being able to create something totally from scratch with the materials Mother Earth has given you, working in harmony with her instead of exploiting her. I find this is a common theme in my crafts.
I started by gathering loads (or what I thought was loads) of ivy and bring it home to weave with, however, as you can see I ran out pretty quickly and had to relocate my crafting to the park.

 Spot the wren! Or what I think is a wren.

 I think someones annoyed I'm here...

So I've still got a bit o trimming to do and probably will need to go over the basket with more bits of ivy because ivy shrinks lots as it dries, but I think this is a pretty decent basket considering its made from ivy and I haven't made many baskets before! I would like to make myself one at someone, and will probably have to soon seeing as Mossy keeps on eating mine...