A couple more choices of wood that you can use:

Bamboo skewers

Rattan (like they use for wicker chairs)

You can steam heat both and they take a set and you can practically tie knots.

: Look for a willow tree. Branches are very supple, but, the better choice
: would be to find some shoots coming from the base. The taper on the shoots
: is fairly slight, so once you get the bark off the diameter of the
: "dowel" should be pretty even along the length.

: When willow shoot were used commercially for rungs on windsor chairs, people
: used to have circular scrapers which were used as sizing dies for willow
: branches. You probalby can't find any, though.

: You might be able to make one by drilling a 1/8th inch hole in a piece of
: steel, then burnish the edge like you would do on a cabinet scraper.
: Probably you won't be able to work with just one. You may need to make a
: few, going up in increments of 1/64th. Pulling the willow shoot through
: the progressively smaller holes will shave off the slight excess wood,
: giving you round dowels which are as flexible as you would like.

: I leave it to you to figure how to hold them in position until they dry

: Hope this helps.

: PGJ