My daughter and I took a class through our local park district. We made our snowflakes from 20 reeds that were each 10 inches long. We dampened the reeds in water and dried them off. We set aside 10 of the reeds to work with later. Then we marked the centers of two of the reeds and put a dot of glue on the center mark of one, laying it down vertically, and laid the second reed across it horizontally. We used a mini clothespin to hold the two reeds together. Then we added two more reeds on either side of the vertical reed, and two more reeds on either side of the horizontal reed. We wove them over/under the center reeds, leaving about 1/4" of room between the reeds. (It kind of looked like a tic/tac/toe board with six sections.) Then we took the outermost vertical reed and bent it down towards the topmost horizontal reed and glued them together, and then pinned. (When you glue them together, keep the two reeds perpendicular to each other; it helps the snowflake to be puffy looking when it is assembled.) We repeated this with the next two outermost vertical and horizontal reeds, remembering to weave them over and under as needed. We glued and pinned. (The center reeds were not used.) Turn the snowflake 90 degrees and repeat. Do this for all 4 corners. Then, using the other 10 reeds, repeat and make the other side of the snowflake.
When both sides of the snowflake have been made, insert the center reeds of one side of the snowflake into the inside of each point on the other snowflake, glue and pin at the points, and voila, you have a snowflake.
I have taken classes on basket-making in the past with this same instructor, Lori, and I have always enjoyed them. I am inspired to do more basket-weaving. I have a basket kit that I bought years ago that I may just have to pull out while the kids are at school on Monday!
