CLUJ, Romania -- A team of 16 skilled craftsmen created
a wicker basket 9.48 meters high and basis of 18.17 meters
long, 10.20 meters wide during 9 days– establishing a new
world record for the Largest
Wicker Basket. “We used over 12,000 of wickers - 12
cubic meters of wicker from the Petresti forest in Cluj County."
"In Turda we have a tradition of baskets
twining. If we had the wicker prepared, we would have finished
it in three days. Otherwise, it took us a long time before
we found them", Dragop joked after the basket was ready.
The team of 16 craftsmen from the traditional
artisan community in Turda, guided by Tudor Dragop and Bazil
Rezmives worked to twine the Largest
Wicker Basket, in which one million of homemade bread
or 350 tones of maize grains fit.
A Commission made up of the vice-president of
the Cluj County Council, Fekete Emoke, county
counselor Mihai Szeplekan of Cluj and the Notary from
Cluj, Ovidiu Boldut, drew up the minutes containing
the results of the Largest
Wicker Basketmeasurements -operation carried out
by an authorized topographer.
“The Largest
Wicker Basket is also an utility basket, not just
a decorative one. We will use it, after the festival, also
for the purpose of promoting traditional products", said
Ioan Avram, director of Expo
Transilvania.
Wicker is hard woven fiber formed into
a rigid material, usually used for baskets or furniture. Wicker
is often made of material of plant origin, but plastic fibers
are also used.
Materials used can be any part of a plant, such
as the cores of cane of rattan stalks, or whole thicknesses
of plants, as with willow switches. Other popular materials
include reed and bamboo.
Often a frame is made of stiffer materials, after
which more pliant material is used to fill in the frame. Wicker
is light yet sturdy, making it suitable for furniture that
will be moved often. It is often used for porch and patio
furniture.
The previous world record for the Largest
Wicker Basket was established by the wicker Basket
twined on 20-30 August 2000, at the Cultural Center of Nowy
Tomys in Poland; it had the shape of a ship, with the of length
of 17.29 meters, the width 9.46 meters and the height of 7.7
meters. Related world records: Biggest
matchstick model-world record set by David Reynolds
