Unveiling the secret life of a Hedgerow Basket

Alongside the task of harvesting winter willow, my mind is drawn to the hedgerows and the special places I go to harvest materials for one of spring’s special treats. Weaving Hedgerow Baskets.

It was my good friend, a true hedge witch, Louise Arthur (of Rough Around the Hedges) who first introduced me to these special baskets. Many years ago she opened my eyes to the possibilities of so many wild growing plants, often thought of as weeds or an invasive nuisance, which can be woven into a sturdy basket.  

Those early days of rummaging in hedgerows were really the beginning of my journey into foraging and harvesting materials for weaving.  A path of wild plants, which is now essential to my life and work.

Coils of honesuckle on my bike handles, harvested on the way to my workshop.

Coils of clematis on the woodland floor

As with all harvesting, I undertake this task with a gentle respect for the plants and land which they are rooted in. It is a beautiful thing to become completely absorbed in your task, being held by the woods in its wildness, listening to the birds and rustle of animals and an occasional human. When it comes to hedges which are on property boundaries and gardens I obviously ask permission. In the woods, I only take small amounts where the material is plentiful, leaving roots in the ground and the plants healthy and strong.  The time to harvest is in the winter when the plants are dormant and the sap is down. This allows the plants to send out out new healthy growth in the spring and recover from the prune.

The Hedgerow Baskets I make are referred to as frame baskets.  Historically this style of basket, were rarely made to be sold commercially and were sometimes known as ‘gyspy baskets’.  A rural basket woven at home for your own use, made out of functional necessity to do a particular job, gathering eggs, harvesting vegetables, foraging for fruit. 

You make two hoops and bind them together with a lovely technique called the ‘Gods Eye Knot’.  There is more than one way to bind hoops together, but I love this method.  The knot requires a little practice to get really neat and involves splitting a rod (if you are using willow or dog wood) centrally down its length.  These split lengths are then bound in a repetitive pattern around the four spokes of the two hoops, binding them tightly.  Not only is the God’s Eye aesthetically pleasing, but it also creates a platform inside the basket which allows the ends of the ribs to rest while you start your weave.

I start with adding two ribs either side of my central rib and then weave those in place on both sides of the basket.  The weave is blissfully simple, each strand travelling over and under the ribs, around the rim of one side and then back to the other, and repeat.  I will add more ribs if the gaps of the ribs become too far apart, this retains a nice rounded profile to the basket.  In the image below, I have added four ribs either side of the central hoop rib.

A lovely deep basket, made with mixed willows and hedgerow materials

Detail of the corkscrew tendril from virginia creeper

Hedgerow Basket made with hazel handles, woven with willows, clematis, bramble and virginia creeper.

The possibilities of plants which can be woven seem endless when you start looking.  There is a fabulous book called Handmade Baskets by Susie Vaughan.  She lists many materials which can be used and over time I periodically come across new plants which I find will tolerate being woven into a basket.  There is an old rule of thumb for frame baskets, which says, if you can wrap a tendril or vine around your finger without it breaking, you can weave with it.  If you can curve the rod or stick around your wrist, you can manipulate that into a hoop for a handle and rim. 

Reliable hedgerow favourites are clematis, ivy, bramble, bindweed, hops, bryony and honey suckle.  Although honey suckle is rather high maintenance, it needs boiling and stripping the bark off first before you can weave with it.  When it comes to brambles, I am always on the lookout for a patch of the ‘right kind’ of brambles.  Most brambles are very prickly and tough. I like to weave with stems that hang down from brambles high up in the hedge, aiming to take root in the earth.  They are exceptionally long, slender and have relatively few prickles – perfect for making into baskets. I wear big thick gauntlet gloves and run the glove up and down the length of the vine to remove the prickles before coiling them for storage.

There are a plethora of garden vines which can be used too; passion flower, wisteria, Russian vine, jasmine, Virginia creeper and the cultivated dogwoods can be fabulous to weave with.  There will be many more that I have not come across or had the chance to weave with so if you get inspired to give it a go, be brave and experiment!

A soggy day harvesting bramble

As a general rule, I then let the fibres dry out.  As a plant dries and the water evaporates from the stem, it shrinks.  If you were to weave a basket with fresh ‘green’ materials you have just cut, as it dries it will shrink and your neatly woven basket will become loose and baggy with the materials sliding around. So allowing them to dry out and then hydrating them by soaking is an important part of the process.  There is not fixed rule to the soaking, sometimes an hour for fine, soft materials, other more woody plants need an overnight soak.  There is definitely an element of trial and error to embrace with these baskets.  If you like clear answers and rules, then maybe try a different style of basket making!

The Godseye knot used to bind the two hoops together

Each basket is always different from the last and when I teach a group, every last one will be different from the next and inherently reflect the person weaving.  The choice of materials, the shaping of the hoops and ribs, the tightness of the weave will all effect the overall shape and style of the basket.  Infinite, fabulous variation.

They really are a joy and I look forward to teaching and making these baskets every spring. So if you are bitten by the bug and want to make your own, do join me in 2025 to see what material treasures I have found over the darker months and weave away your winter blues with your own Hedgerow Basket. 

Subtle colours in the basket are from clematis, bramble, honeysuckle, virginia creeper and the grey of Nancy saunders willow