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