ADDMO: Stripe Wave Dancing Basket
Description
A beautiful decorative bowl with an undulating, wave-like form and simple stripe - handwoven from palm tree leaf, creeper vines and locally foraged twigs in rural Zambia. Display yours on a shelf or sideboard or fill with fruit and place centre stage at your table!
The organisation we buy these woven bowls through seeks to support the Tonga people in achieving economic independence. They provide the weavers with the materials and the ongoing training needed to keep producing their work to a very high standard, and they ensure that fair prices are paid for the weavers’ work.
The weavers who produce these wavy bowls tend to weave in groups, meeting outdoors regularly to weave in the shade. Income made from basket weaving is typically invested in family farming enterprises (the other mainstay of these communities along with traditional crafts) and to support the family and pay children’s school fees. You can meet the Zambian weavers here.
Material:
PALM LEAF
Dimensions: max DIA (top)
Small: 26-36cm
Medium: 38-45cm
Large: 46-55cm
Please note, as this is a handmade product, dimensions & colour may vary from those shown in the photographs.
HANDMADE IN ZAMBIA
We are delighted to be bringing beautiful Zambian basketry to The Basket Room, and thus connecting some incredible, rural craft collectives with conscientious customers all over the world. As part of our mission to discover and connect with the most talented craftspeople across Africa, Holly and Peris travelled to Zambia in 2019. Here they met and spent time with three different weaving groups who between them produce some of the woven wall baskets, decorative dancing baskets and handwoven place mats that we are now so pleased to be able to share with you.
Natural dyes are a key feature of this very special Zambian basketry, and the weavers we partner with are masters in achieving beautiful, earthy colours from blending rust, leaves and bark from specific indigenous trees in vats of boiling water.
Men and women both weave in Zambia, and the winnowing baskets that we sell as large wall platters are often used in many weavers’ homes, and for the careful work of separating rice and grain from chaff.
Our Zambian baskets are a celebration of the weavers’ natural home environment, woven from raw materials such as palm leaf, twigs and creeper vines. Some baskets are woven from the carefully stripped roots of certain trees, harvested in a sustainable way that means the tree is not damaged and the root can continue to grow and provide an ongoing source of weaving materials.
Weaving is a vital income source and a way of life for the people in these rural communities. Other means of income are blacksmithing and woodwork, fishing, growing rice and vegetables, and rearing livestock and poultry. People as young as the age of eighteen weave in these Zambian groups, and local schools even run weaving clubs so that youngsters can learn this precious craft and continue this age-old legacy for generations to come. To own one of these handwoven baskets is to become a guardian of this sustainable craft and a supporter of these Zambian weavers’ economic empowerment.
Shop the Dancing Bowls here
Shop the Palm Placemats & Trays here
Shop the Wall Platters here
Shop the Statement Art Baskets here
