Unidentified Twigs

Jan · Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2014 5:46 am

Will ask Barbara but its many many years since I was in
school.....LOL.I don't even know if they still do raffia work..
Watch this space!!!!

tielfan · Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2014 8:56 am

It's still possible to buy raffia but I don't know how popular it is.

Barbara · Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2014 2:22 pm

I use raffia to fasten things in the bird room, they like to shred it.
I wasn't sure if it's safe for birds and asked in TC but nobody was able to give me an answer. Maybe someone here knows?
They have been chewing on it for months so my guess is that it's safe, though. I bought a natural one, no colours on it.

EDIT: I find it in the gardening section at B&Q which is a big hardware store.

tielfan · Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2014 3:27 pm

It's safe. I don't remember the details but I looked it up several years ago. You just want to use it in a way that there's no big risk of getting tangled up in it.

Barbara · Posted: Sun Jan 05, 2014 7:35 pm

Saturday I received those "Decorative Florist Rattan Twigs" from the eBay seller I was talking about earlier.

It's a nice fat roll; length, diameter and colour are just about the same as the mystery twigs.

They are a bit less elastic than the mystery twigs, so I was thinking: If I find a way to humidify them before use, would that make them more bendable? Maybe using the steam gun? They are not totally rigid, but they might snap if bent too much. They are a bit brittle.

All in all I recommend them, very versatile and cheap.

Bluekeet · Posted: Sun Jan 05, 2014 8:13 pm

Oooh, looks like something I could use. I like to have my bird's cages as natural as possible. It would go well with the grapevine I have in there.

tielfan · Posted: Sun Jan 05, 2014 8:18 pm

That looks exactly like the bundles of basket reed that I saw for sale online when we talked about it the other day.

Basket reed is softened by soaking it in warm water. Depending on which online article you look at, the recommended time varies from a couple of minutes to an hour. Basically you want to let it soak until it's soft enough to bend without breaking. Don't leave it in the water longer than you need to because this can contribute to mold growth.

Jan · Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 3:39 am

Barbara wrote:

There is something called reed spline on eBay and it's not cheap. The colour is right, though. I can try send them a pic of my twigs and ask if they know what that is.

This website tells what everything is, sadly no links to where to buy the raw material
http://wickerworks.weebly.com/cane-raw-materials.html
I think wicker is too hard to be the sticks material.

Jan is there any way you could ask where the schools gets the material?
They should know the name too.

That round rattan reed in the photo seems just like it, Tielfan, only these I got are much thinner. But It has to be the same plant family!

Barbara... I've asked around our local schools, they don't do this now..
but its called cane basket work...
Very few schools do it now... its all computers...
By what I can understand from an old guy its was called basket cane.. hope this helps some...

Jan · Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 3:43 am

PS.... yes if its the proper cane it has to be soaked
in water for a while, to make it pliable...
some are coated with
a film, so be careful....
Years ago I remember seeing a bird cage made
out of cane was lovely...
wonder if I could do it now?

tielfan · Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 11:50 am

With parrot-family birds a cage made of reeds is a shredding toy lol.

It's not easy to find instructions for making a decorative bird cage. Here's a link that explains how to make a miniature bird cage out of wire. It could probably be adapted to a bigger version using basket cane.

Unidentified Twigs

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