Some Basketry

[jon r]

Just finished making these baskets... thought some people may be interested to see them. They are made from Blackberry Brambles. The one on the left is a fishing creel which is used to put your fish in once you have caught them, I still need to fit the shoulder strap on this one. And i guess the one on the right could be good for forraging berries and fungi etc. Hope you like them

 

[Mesquite]

Very neat work there Jon

 

[Toddy]

They look sound, Jon

cheers,
M

 

[caliban]

These are really nice. You should do some bike baskets for the retro bicycle fans, they'd go like hot cakes.

 

[Tony]

they're lovely Jon, good work

 

[Kerne]

Excellent work - I'm looking for some kind of trug thingy to collect veggies from my garden and was considering buying some willow - I had no idea you could use brambles. Do you have to treat them in any way?

 

[Cobweb]

I've tons of brambles out the back, if they are as good as willow then....
I'm with Kerne here, how do/did you prep them?

 

[Shewie]

Stunning work again Jon, lovely job

 

[jon r]

Hi everyone, thanks for the compliments. I think brambles are a fantastic basketry material, i feel they are better than Willow in some ways.

To collect the brambles i wear leather gloves and hold a scrap of thick canvas in one hand. I find a suitable thin and long bramble which i have found like to grow in the light areas of woodland. I take the growing tip of the bramble and fold the canvas arround it, whilst grasping the canvas i run it down to the length of the bramble to strip all leaves and thorns. The process is very easy... last time i collected brambles i gathered about 140 runners in one go. But you do need quite a lot of material to make a single basket. I hold the canvas arround the bramble so that it does not wear out my leather gloves.

I then leave my harvested Brambles to dry which only takes about 1 week. Although i got rid of all the thorn tips during the gathering process they are still very rough and so i run each bramble through a piece of sandpaper which makes them really smooth..Before i weave them i soak them in water just with the hose pipe... no need to submerge them in water for days like you do with Willow. Just spray over untill they are soaking and then leave for about 15 mins in a cool place so that the water soaks in.

There you go... all ready to weave. They are incredibly flexible too.

Good luck with your own bramble baskets!

Jon

 

[dwardo]

They are brilliant. There is a mass of brambes at my local haunt so next time i am down there they are baskets!

 

[jojo]

Good to see you back with some new craft work Jon. They are very good looking baskets. And plenty of material available too!

 

[Kerne]

Hi everyone, thanks for the compliments. I think brambles are a fantastic basketry material, i feel they are better than Willow in some ways.

To collect the brambles i wear leather gloves and hold a scrap of thick canvas in one hand. I find a suitable thin and long bramble which i have found like to grow in the light areas of woodland. I take the growing tip of the bramble and fold the canvas arround it, whilst grasping the canvas i run it down to the length of the bramble to strip all leaves and thorns. The process is very easy... last time i collected brambles i gathered about 140 runners in one go. But you do need quite a lot of material to make a single basket. I hold the canvas arround the bramble so that it does not wear out my leather gloves.

I then leave my harvested Brambles to dry which only takes about 1 week. Although i got rid of all the thorn tips during the gathering process they are still very rough and so i run each bramble through a piece of sandpaper which makes them really smooth..Before i weave them i soak them in water just with the hose pipe... no need to submerge them in water for days like you do with Willow. Just spray over untill they are soaking and then leave for about 15 mins in a cool place so that the water soaks in.

There you go... all ready to weave. They are incredibly flexible too.

Good luck with your own bramble baskets!

Jon

Thanks, Jon I'll have a go at this since my garden grows brambles at an alarming rate!

 

[elma]

great work there john

 

[dogwood]

To collect the brambles i wear leather gloves and hold a scrap of thick canvas in one hand. I find a suitable thin and long bramble which i have found like to grow in the light areas of woodland. I take the growing tip of the bramble and fold the canvas arround it, whilst grasping the canvas i run it down to the length of the bramble to strip all leaves and thorns. The process is very easy... last time i collected brambles i gathered about 140 runners in one go. But you do need quite a lot of material to make a single basket. I hold the canvas arround the bramble so that it does not wear out my leather gloves.

I then leave my harvested Brambles to dry which only takes about 1 week. Although i got rid of all the thorn tips during the gathering process they are still very rough and so i run each bramble through a piece of sandpaper which makes them really smooth..Before i weave them i soak them in water just with the hose pipe... no need to submerge them in water for days like you do with Willow. Just spray over untill they are soaking and then leave for about 15 mins in a cool place so that the water soaks in.

Jon, thanks loads for this description, just awesome.

I've never tried using blackberry brambles, but we've got a ton nearby and I know what I'll be doing this weekend!

 

[Cyclingrelf]

Those are neat! What a great use for brambles - thanks for sharing your secrets on how to prep them

 

[jon r]

great! nice to hear so many people will be giving this a go! By the way i updated my website home page which shows some other stuff that i've been upto: www.jonsbushcraft.com

 

[WhichDoctor]

This is really grate stuff, I've always fancied having a go at basketry but there just isn't enough suitable willow or hazel around here. There is no end of brambles though!

Now where did I leave those gardening gloves