Dowel Bread Basket
What You’ll Need:
• Five pine dowels, 3/8 inch (9 mm) in diameter
and 35 inches (90 cm) long
• Measuring tape
• Saw
• Sandpaper
• Paint (used here: Annie Sloan Chalk Paint
in Versailles)
• Paintbrush
• Round pie pan, 9½ inches (24 cm) in diameter • Paper liner, the same size as your pie pan • Concrete mix (used here: about 3 ¾ pounds
(1.75 kg))
• Rubber gloves, safety goggles and dust mask,
for mixing
• Old spoon or plastic glove
• Food-grade concrete sealant
• Jersey yarn (used here: about 11 yards (10 m) of
Zpagetti yarn by Hoooked)
• Scissors
What You’ll Do:
Cut the dowels to 7-inch (18 cm) lengths and sand the edges. Each 35-inch (90 cm) dowel will create five shorter pieces. Paint all the dowel pieces. Let them dry and apply a second coat if needed.
Line the pie pan with a paper liner—this will create texture on the sides and make it easy to release the basket from the mold. Mix your concrete (see sidebar) and pour it into the pie pan to a depth of about 1 ¼ inches (3 cm).
Quickly press all 25 dowels into the concrete, ½ inch (1 cm) in from the edge. Set them at a slight outward angle, evenly spaced around the pan. Smooth the concrete behind the dowels as best as you can, using a gloved finger or spoon. Let the concrete set.