What Is Rattan Basket? The Plant, the Weave and Why It Outlasts the Others

Pick up a basket in a homeware shop and the label will say rattan, wicker or woven, and the shop assistant will not know which one is true. The confusion has a simple cause: one of those words is a plant, one is a method and one is a description, and a single basket can be all three. So what is rattan basket, exactly? It is a basket woven from the stems of rattan, a climbing palm from the forests of Southeast Asia whose solid, bendable stem makes the strongest natural basket material there is. This article explains the plant and the two parts of it that go into a basket, what rattan baskets are used for, how they compare with seagrass, bamboo and willow, how to look after one, and what to ask when buying them by the hundred.

What Is Rattan Basket Made From

A rattan basket is defined by its material, so the material comes first. Rattan is not bamboo, not a grass and not a tree. It is a vine, and that is why it behaves the way it does.

Rattan Is a Climbing Palm With a Solid Stem

Rattan grows as a long vine that climbs rainforest trees, reaching lengths of a hundred metres and more. Unlike bamboo, which is hollow and splits, a rattan stem is solid all the way through, so it bends without breaking and can be steamed into a curve that it will hold. Most of the world’s supply grows in Indonesia, with Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam behind it.

Core and Peel Are the Parts That Go Into a Basket

The harvested stem is stripped of its thorny skin and then split. The glossy outer skin, called peel or cane, is cut into flat strips and used for fine tight weaving and for wrapping joints. The inner core is cut into round reed of different thicknesses, which becomes both the uprights and the weavers of most rattan baskets. A basket can be made of core alone, peel alone, or both, and the choice decides how fine and how strong it is.

Rattan Is the Material and Wicker Is the Method

Wicker is a way of weaving round rods over and under stiff uprights, and it can be done with rattan, willow, bamboo or plastic. Rattan is the plant. So most rattan baskets are wicker baskets, but a wicker basket is only a rattan basket if the rods are rattan. Reading a label with that in mind clears up most of the confusion in one go.

What a Rattan Basket Is Used For

Strength, light weight and the ability to hold a shape make rattan the basket material for anything that will be lifted, carried or loaded.

Rattan Wholesale Laundry Basket Storage Hamper

Storage baskets for blankets and laundry, picnic hampers and market baskets, bread baskets and fruit bowls, planters and plant pot covers, and the woven drawers and shelf baskets that furniture retailers sell by the million. Rattan also takes stain and lacquer evenly, so it is the fibre chosen when a range has to match a colour.

Is Rattan Basket Better Than Seagrass or Bamboo

Rattan Versus Seagrass for Storage

Seagrass is twisted into a soft cord and makes chunky, textured, cheaper baskets that flex under load and cannot hold a tight shape. Rattan holds its shape, carries more and costs more. For a floppy laundry basket seagrass is fine; for a basket that has to slide into a shelf every day, rattan wins.

Rattan Versus Bamboo for Trays and Boxes

Bamboo is split into flat strips and plaited into crisp geometric patterns, so it makes better flat trays, lidded boxes and angular storage. Rattan makes better rounded, curved and fine weaves. Most catalogues use both for exactly those reasons.

Rattan Versus Willow for the Traditional Look

Willow is the European basket material, woven from whole rods into the classic hamper and log basket. It is heavier, more rustic and tends to be pale or bark brown. Rattan is lighter, smoother and takes colour better. The choice is usually about the look a range is going for rather than about strength.

How to Care for a Rattan Basket

Rattan lasts for decades if two things are kept away from it: standing water and a radiator. Wipe it with a damp cloth rather than soaking it, let it dry in the air rather than in the sun, and keep it out of a bathroom that steams up every day. If it dries out and starts to creak, a light wipe with a damp cloth restores the flex. A rattan basket that has been treated against mould and insects before weaving, which every export basket should be, needs nothing else.

Buying Rattan Baskets in Bulk

For a buyer, the questions above turn into a specification: core or peel or both, reed thickness, weave pattern, weave density, rim construction, finish colour and the treatment the fibre had before weaving. A sample is approved, and every basket in the order is checked against it. That is what a rattan basket wholesale programme actually consists of, and it is why two suppliers quoting the same photograph can be far apart on price.

Wholesale Storage Basket Made From Rattan 

The other question is where the rattan comes from and who weaves it. Indonesia grows most of it, and Vietnam’s craft villages weave a large share of the baskets sold in Western retail, so most wholesale rattan baskets programmes are built between those two countries. Knowing how the basket is actually made, from soaking the reed to locking the rim, is the fastest way to judge a supplier’s sample, because the steps that make rattan basket weaving work are the same ones an inspector checks on a production floor.

Conclusion

What is rattan basket? A basket woven from the solid, bendable stem of a climbing palm grown in Southeast Asia, using the glossy peel for fine weaving and wrapping and the inner core cut into round reed for the structure. Rattan is the material and wicker is the method, so most rattan baskets are wicker but not the other way round. Rattan holds its shape and carries weight better than seagrass, makes rounder and finer baskets than bamboo, and is lighter and takes colour better than willow. Keep it away from standing water and radiators and it will last for decades.

Artex Nam An is a Vietnamese handicraft manufacturer weaving rattan baskets, trays and storage in the craft villages around Hanoi for retail and home decor buyers worldwide, from treated and graded reed to a lashed rim on every piece. See the rattan range in our catalogue, or tell us what the basket is for and how many you need and we will send a sample before we quote.

Read more: Rattan vs Wicker, Cane, Willow: Here is the difference between 4 popular terms