More Tinkering

Chapter 7 The Rhombus Weave

Form simple shapes with one key pattern.

Now that you’ve had an overview of the math in basketry here in Timor, let’s weave something. We can make simple shapes and even letters with the rhombus weave on just two strips. It’s only for decoration, but you’ll get the gist of the sort of weave used in the lafatik and mamafatin, among many others.

Gather stuff

• Several long strips of paper with uniform width

Getting Your Strips

If you don’t have palm trees around, you can use reeds or grass. Go see what is growing in terms of long, slender plants in your local wild area.

You can also cut strips of any paper ...