This is a good time of year to collect basketry materials. Plants such as brambles are at their most tough and longest growth, yet still flexible. In case you didn’t know, bramble baskets are fairly easy to make and last a long time. The trick is to de-thorn them with some very tough gloves, a knife and a piece of strong cloth.

Here’s some bramble baskets I made earlier. Da-dah!!

I have been using these 6 or 7 years later and have only just composted them as they worked themselves loose. If I’d looked after them better instead of leaving them outside in the rain they would have lasted even longer.

Long pine needles are another winner in the world of natural basketry. I collected brown-gold Monterey pine needles which are at least 12cm long. I dyed some with turmeric, onion skins and coffee.

These delicate baskets were first made by First Nations peoples of America. I find they’re better suited to storing lighter items like sewing threads.

It’s a more fiddly process than bramble, using a straw to feed bundles of pine needles into each other. You then sew the layers together with strong natural thread (the traditional way is with gut, but find that if you can!!). The result Is well worth the effort…

If you would like to learn basketry, I am up for teaching some beginner’s courses locally in Bedfordshire. Do let me know as I am posting more courses up soon.

xx Hedgewitch Kat xx