The basket without a finishing time

Text: an original contemporary craft-feature-style practice extract.

The largest object above the basket-maker's table was not one of her baskets. It was a chalkboard: HOW LONG DOES ONE TAKE? 43 MINUTES. The craft centre had lifted the answer from an exchange during her first demonstration and enlarged it for the next. Before Leena had picked up a length of willow or spoken to the visitors, time had become the headline.

The clock began when the weaving began. It did not include the previous morning's sorting and soaking, the six abandoned bases under the bench or the seventeen years in which Leena's hands had learned when to pull and when to loosen. Visitors kept returning to the number. Was she faster now? Could she finish before they went for lunch? At first, Leena explained what the clock omitted. As the crowd grew, her reply contracted to 'about three quarters of an hour', and then to a nod towards the board. The answer sounded more certain as it became less complete.

At the following year's demonstration, the board had disappeared. Leena placed two baskets on the table instead: one even and polished, the other leaning sharply to one side. The crooked basket had taken longer. A stubborn length had split, and the mistake had shown her how to strengthen the rim of the second basket. This time, when the willow in her hands began to crack, she stopped. Several visitors drifted away without seeing a finished object. The centre had fewer baskets to sell and no neat completion photograph for its leaflet.

Those who remained, however, stopped asking for a finishing time. They asked why one length bent while another resisted, which mistakes could be repaired and how Leena decided that continuing would cause damage. Around the unfinished basket, the demonstration became slower and the explanation became larger.

In this extract, the writer tries to show both that a straightforward measure can hide the history of skilled work and that resisting this measure has costs as well as benefits.

Evaluate how successfully this is achieved. Support your views with detailed reference to the extract.