How to make a basket from a palm frond...

 While in Fiji we learnt how to make a palm frond basket which you can use to carry things in or put a chicken in to cook in the fire. To get started we got a palm frond, make sure you have an even number of leaves on both sides of the centre stalk bit.

 working on one side of the frond start we started weaving the leaves

keep the leaves fairly tight together otherwise your basket will have big holes in it!

Then weave the other side of the palm frond leaves to match the first side (well as best you can!), do I see a few holes in yours Vince??

We had to plait the long frond leaves to make the bag handle.

 We put a knot at the end of the plait so it doesnt come undone.

 Ta dah,  the fronds have been woven to form the two sides of the bag and the handles have been plaited and tied togethr...whats next... as my bag does not have an opening??? 

 Sorry, I was so excited that I had made my bag that I forgot to take the photo of the instructor cutting (with a very sharp knife) the centre of the palm frond and as it split open it gave the basket its top edge. Anyhow here is thk finished basket, it tool about 2 days in the sun to dry. We couldnt bring it home due to quarantine regulations.

I will wait for a palm frond to drop here at home and have another go at making a basket, it was fun and relatively quick once you got the hang of what to do.