Charming effects may be obtained by encasing pottery and glass jars for plants and flowers with knotted raffia or open-meshed weaves in rattan.
Here is a wide field for the original craftsman.
A few of the possibilities are suggested in the following pages.
Some hanging baskets of rattan are also described.
Hanging Jar for Ferns Materials: A green pottery jar 9 inches in circumference at the top, 14 inches at the widest part, 107/8 inches in circumference at the bottom and 31/2 inches high, A bunch of bleached raffia.
The bleached raffia sold by dealers in florists' supplies looks most attractive over the dull-green of this pottery jar.
Three strands of raffia are braided for nine and a half inches in the middle of the strands.
The six ends are brought together, one is cut short and the other five are braided in a flat plait for an inch and a half.
Five and a half inches are left loose and then four and a half inches are braided in a flat plait, joining new strands as they are needed.
Another five and a half inches are left loose and an inch and a half is braided in a flat plait.
The end is then attached to the narrow braid exactly opposite the point where the broad plait began.
This makes a ring of narrow braiding to slip over the top of the jar and a broad plait for the flexible handle.
Sixteen strands are knotted on the narrow ring.
At about half an inch from the top the first row of knots is made.
Another row of knotting at half an inch from the first row, separating the strands, makes half of a diamond-shaped mesh.
In the third row the strands are brought down together and knotted at two inches from the previous row.
Here they are separated again and two rows of knotting in the diamond-shaped mesh are made half an inch apart.
The bottomless bag thus formed is wet, slipped over the top of the jar and fitted close to it.
A double strand of raffia is run through the last row of diamond-shaped meshes and tied securely.
This should come under the jar at about an inch from the edge.
The ends of the strands are cut close to the last row of knots, completing the covering.
Brown Pottery Jar Encased in Rattan Rings Materials : A brown pottery jar 2 inches in diameter at the top, 31/8 inches high and 31/8 inches in diameter at the bottom, 4 weavers of No.
4 rattan, A bunch of raffia, A tapestry needle No.
19.
The Chinese sometimes suspend ginger jars in a quaint casing formed by five rings of rattan.
It is simply made as follows: Five pieces of No.
4 rattan about forty-four inches long are tied into rings three inches in diameter, making three circuits on each ring, counting the foundation ring as one circuit.
Four of these rings make the sides and the fifth forms the bottom.
Each one of the four rings is bound to the next one with three-quarters of an inch of raffia in buttonhole stitch, the four forming a hollow square.
A fifth ring is bound at the bottom to each of the others with three-quarters of an inch of raffia in button-hole stitch.
The jar is then slipped into this open case and a handle is made as follows: Half a length of No.
4 rattan is tied through two of the rings above a joining to form a small ring.
The ends are brought through this ring and up, making a half circuit with each.
They are now twisted together for fourteen inches to the point diagonally opposite where the other two rings are joined.
Here they are tied back of the joining, and on the imperfect ring thus formed one of the ends is twisted in and out until it has made the circuit and returned to the other end back of the joining, where both are cut just long enough to lie against a coil of the ring.