Basket weaving is the oldest craft in the world. Scientists believe that it is older than ceramics. At first clay pots used to be made by weaving a willow frame and then covering it with clay.
Lithuanians have been weaving since the old days. Each village had its own weaver, making baskets for everyday needs. They were mostly used for potatoes and other vegetables, also apples, berries and mushrooms. Weavers also used to make seedlips, riddles, covered baskets for storing feeds, grain, flour and cheese, as well as bast shoes, cradles, etc. Young plants in farms, gardens, pastures and forests used to be fenced by woven fences. The materials for weaving — hazelnut and willow rods and chips, osiers, spruce and pine roots, as well as rye straws — could be easily found in the nature.
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In Aukštaitija and Dzūkija regions pine slips used to be used for all kinds of baskets. Some of them were used for potatoes, others — for grass, firewood, mushrooms, while covered baskets — for hay or chops. There were also special baskets for keeping meat, taking piglets to market (covered), peeled wickers were used for ornate baskets for women to go to the market or food to be blessed during Eastern mass. The most common place to purchase a basket was a market. There were also all kinds of straw and wicker baskets (for keeping flour or seedlips, measures for measuring and seeding crops) and old-fashioned scales used for weighing in pounds. In order to prevent straws from breaking, baskets used to be made only of flailed straws. They used to be tied using a lime bark or a divided hazel slip. Most farmers had a woven vessel for measuring grain and seedlips. Larger covered baskets were used by people with little land to keep their scarce grain, while larger farmers used these for flour. There were also huge wicker baskets — a must have in every farm — for carrying hay from the barn to the stables. People in Aukštaitija region have been using slip baskets since the old days. Older villagers used to weave bast shoes even in the early 20th century. While woven furniture was very popular in manors and rectories (especially summer houses) up until the 20th c.
Lithuanians also made sodai. Sodas (“garden”) is a light decoration, usually made of straws or reeds strung on a piece of string and hung above the table. A sodas hanging on the ceiling used to symbolise the garden of heavens, creating a sacral and festive area around the table.
