DIY wire bread basket

DIY PEOPLE: WIRE BREADBASKET (Click to watch video)

From:  DIY Next Door: Real People, Real Projects

During her college days as an art student, Firoozeh Underhill developed an interest in industrial design. “It’s the practical end of art,” she says.

“Industrial design is what you see all around; the shape, the style and the form of objects.” And the objects that most intrigue Firoozeh are those made from metal. “I love metal,” she says. “I love it because you can do almost anything with metal.”

WhFiroozeh_DIYen not practicing metal work in her home art studio, Firoozeh will, most likely, be found at the local hardware store. She scours the shelves for unique metal objects and then incorporates those objects into jewelry of her own design. She also makes watches, bracelets and one-of-a-kind handbags.

“I like to find things at the hardware store that I can use differently from the way in which they were intended,” she explains.

And a good example of that re-purposing is Firoozeh’s easy way to make a very practical metal breadbasket. The process starts, as you might expect, with a visit to the hardware store.

Materials:

Wire mesh (sometimes called hardware cloth that comes on rolls in different gauges)
Various gauges of copper wire to seam the basket and add decorative touches (Firoozeh recommends 22, 20,16 and 12 gauge wire)
Wire cutters (don’t use household scissors because they will become dull)
Pair of needle-nose pliers (for bending and shaping the wire)
Sandpaper (to soften the ends of the cut wire)

  1. Begin the project by cutting a rectangular section of the wire mesh equal to the specifications of the size breadbasket you wish to make. Firoozeh’s breadbasket was slightly longer and wider than a loaf of bread, with side walls about 3″ high.
  2. From each corner of the rectangular wire mesh, cut away a square section. This will enable the mesh to be folded inward to form the shape of a basket.
  3. Using the 22 gauge copper wire, sew the corners of the basket together. Create a seam of copper wire that joins the basket corners .
  4. Create decorative patterns with the remaining three gauges of copper wire by randomly looping the wire in and around the basket. “There is no right or wrong to this process,” Firoozeh explains. “It’s just what you think is nice and artistically pleasing.”

DIYer Firoozeh,  works with metal to create unique pieces, including the breadbasket that was created in this DIY People segment.