Treasure Tuesday

My mom enjoys making split oak baskets, and here's one of my unique favorites made with an antique potato masher. She weaves the basket material for the bottom in and around the masher to make it sturdy; and as you can see, the antique red handle of the masher is used as the handle for the basket. Very creative! I keep this basket on top of our potato and onion bin and usually keep it filled with candy.

Whenever we go antiquing, our eyes are always open for potato mashers. Two dollars would be an excellent price for a good one, but some are priced $6 - $8 depending on the condition and the color. The highest price we've seen is $25! I guess it depends on how badly you want to collect an antique one as to whether you'll pay those prices. My mom says she wouldn't pay over $3 for one, because if she's selling the basket, it makes the price higher than a customer is willing to pay.

Green-handled mashers are also very popular. Hannah has a green-handled basket filled with hair scrunchies and ribbons that she keeps on the corner of her antique dresser. Both of these baskets are special gifts from my mom. We treasure them mostly because her hands lovingly made them for us.

~Deb

* Special thanks for the idea to Mrs. U over at Making a House a Home who posted on potato mashers as part of her Cooking Essentials series.

Comments

[Chyrll]

Thank you for posting about your potato masher and basket. I enjoyed reading your post about them. They are very pretty!

[Bet]

Neat! I posted a picture of my potato masher basket over on my blog. :)

[Jodi]

Deb ~ that is so unique! How very special to have those things made by your mom; they only grow more special as time passes.

[Connie McEntire]

I love the baskets, I have never seen one like that before. How special. connie from Texas

[Islandsparrowi]

Very creative! I've never seen a basket like that.

[Abigail]

What lovely baskets--that's so special!