Weaving and Plaiting

1The basket with the pointed hat

At her aunt's wedding, Keza saw a basket standing on the table: tall and pale, with dark zigzags climbing up its side, and a lid shaped like a little pointed hat.

It is an agaseke, the Rwandan peace basket. You give one as a gift, and it says: I share with you.

Her aunt made it out of grass. Grass! Today you will do the same trick with paper. Take flat strips that bend easily, cross them over and under, and end up with something strong.

2Weaving is just over and under

Because the strips squeeze one another, they hold. No glue, no thread, no nails. That is how a sleeping mat, an ikirago, stays in one piece, and how a woven chair seat can hold a grown man.

Worked example: Keza weaves a paper mat

She uses two sheets of paper of different colours, one yellow and one green.

Part 1: the strips that stay still. She folds the yellow sheet in half. From the folded edge she cuts straight lines towards the open edge, but she stops about two fingers before the top. She never cuts all the way, so the sheet stays in one piece.

She opens it out. Now there is a sheet full of tall slits, with a border of paper still holding them together. These standing strips are the ones that do not move again.

Part 2: the strips that travel. From the green sheet she cuts about six long strips, each roughly two fingers wide.

Part 3: row one. She takes one green strip and weaves it across: over the first yellow strip, under the second, over the third, under the fourth, and on to the end. She slides it right up to the top and pushes it snug.

Part 4: row two. This is the important one. She takes the next green strip and starts it the opposite way: under the first yellow strip, over the second, under the third. Then she pushes it up tight against row one.

Part 5. Row three starts like row one (over). Row four starts like row two (under). Over-start, under-start, over-start, under-start, until the mat is full.

Now look at it. Little yellow squares and little green squares, sitting side by side like a chessboard. You did not draw that pattern. It appeared on its own, because every row started opposite the row above it.

3What happens when you get it wrong

Mugisha tried the same mat, but he started row two the same way as row one: over, under, over, under. His two rows went over and under in exactly the same places.

He got no checks at all. He got stripes running down his mat, and his strips were loose enough to slide back out. Two rows that start the same way lie on top of each other instead of locking together.

The rule: every new row starts the opposite way to the row before it. If the last row went over first, this row goes under first.

4Plaiting: three strands, one move

Plaiting is what you do to hair, to rope, and to strips of paper, grass or banana fibre.

Take three strips. Hold them together at the top, or ask a friend to hold them, or trap them under a heavy book. Call them left, middle and right.

1. Bring the right strip over the middle one and let go. The right strip is now the new middle.
2. Bring the left strip over the middle one and let go. The left strip is now the new middle.
3. Right over middle. Left over middle. Right over middle. Left over middle. On and on.

That is all there is to it. Pull gently as you go so it stays tight, and a flat rope grows under your hands. Plait three paper strips and you have a bracelet. Plait dry grass and you have a strong cord.

5Back to the agaseke

A real agaseke is not made from flat paper strips. The weaver winds a bundle of grass round and round in a spiral, and stitches each new ring tightly to the ring below it with thin strands of dyed sisal.

But the idea underneath is your idea: strips crossing and holding each other tight, and a pattern that appears from where the colours land. When you weave your yellow-and-green mat, your hands are learning what her hands already know.

Try it yourself

Answer out loud first, then tap Show answer to check.

1. You have just woven a strip: over, under, over, under. How must the next strip begin?
2. Why does a woven mat not fall apart, with no glue and no thread in it?
3. Keza cuts her slits all the way from one edge of the paper to the other. What will happen when she opens it out?
4. In plaiting, how many strands do you use, and what is the one move you repeat?
5. Umutoni's mat came out with stripes running down it instead of checks. What did she do wrong?

Answers

1. Under first. Every row starts the opposite way to the row above, and that is exactly what makes the checked pattern.
2. The strips press on one another. Each strip is pinned down by the strips crossing over it, so nothing can slide out. Weaving holds itself.
3. It will fall into a pile of loose strips. She must stop cutting before the far edge, so a border of paper keeps all the strips joined.
4. Three strands. The move is: the outside strip goes over the middle one. Right over middle, left over middle, again and again.
5. She started two rows the same way. Rows that go over and under in the same places line up instead of locking, so you see stripes instead of squares.