Baskets from Zambia: In rural Zambia near Victoria Falls, a wedding basket is a woman's most useful and valuable possession. In everyday life she may choose to use it practically, to winnow grain and to collect and store harvested roots and rice, or to beautify her home by hanging it on a wall.
The beauty and durability of Zambian wedding baskets is no accident. Meticulously harvesting the roots of the Makenge bush is truly an art form of its own, and once roots are found, they are boiled until soft and colored with natural plant dyes. Only the most skilled craftswomen are able to weave these baskets, and each adds one-of-a-kind patterns conveying messages of beauty, marriage and family.
Baskets from Senegal: Wolof women in rural Senegal craft these vibrant, multicoloured baskets from cattail stalks and strips of plastic used in the production of outdoor mats.
Weaving baskets enables the women of the household to contribute to the family's income while preserving traditional craft forms.
Baskets from Uganda: Skilled artisans in Uganda hand weave dyed strips of raffia palm and banana plant stalks to create these gorgeous decorative baskets.
Whether displayed on the wall or put to use on the tabletop, each handmade basket is truly a work of art.
Baskets from Tanzania: In the hills of Mafiga Matatu, in the tri-border region of Rwanda, Tanzania and Burundi live more than 380 rural artisans who work together through a social enterprise, where they create high-quality handcrafted products that preserve local traditions and incorporate environmentally sustainable local materials. Natural Konokono Bahari baskets feature tough papyrus grass (locally known as intamyi) coil woven with glistening star grass (ugwafu) and strips of locally woven cotton kitenge cloth.
Baskets from Zimbabwe: BaTonga Binga Baskets. In the Binga District of northern Zimbabwe, skilled BaTonga women craft iconic baskets from locally harvested palm leaves and wild twigs. The BaTonga people once farmed fertile land that was flooded by the damming of Lake Karibu, so weavers displaced across the lake demonstrate similar yet clearly distinctive styles. Each basket is truly a skilled work of art, and can be used for tabletop storage or as wall art. Crafted from Palm leaves and twigs. These are personally my very favourite baskets!
Being handcrafted, each of these baskets varies slightly in colour and dimensions. The price also varies by the detail in the work, the materials used, and the region in which these are crafted.
Sizes are included by the descriptions in the dropdown menu.
