NYUMA: Teal, Gold & Red Stripe Woven Laundry Basket
Bring some joy to laundry day with stylish NYUMA’s sundial red stripe on verdigris dyed sisal. This home storage basket is wonderfully versatile and will work hard in any home.
Roomy and strong enough to hold fireside logs and lovely as a woven toy basket, this woven laundry hamper can also be used for stashing rugs, blankets and towels away too. Use yours as a beach bag or take it on your big food shop – its purposes are endless.
Methodically hand woven by a member of a women’s weaving group in rural Kenya, this large laundry hamper has been formed from forty balls of Kenyan sisal grass. The strong leaves of this indigenous plant undergo a long process of harvesting, rolling and dyeing - all performed by hand - before six long days of weaving begin.
Farming is the backbone of most Kenyan weaver's domestic lives. Rainy seasons and hard work in the fields bring cabbages and bananas, oranges, collard and tropical fruit to the table. But as drought persists, these women must increasingly look to alternative ways of providing for their families and paying school fees. This is where weaving comes in – and your purchases help us keep this precious craft alive.
Material: SISAL & LEATHER RIM HANDLES
Dimensions (approx): 41cm DIA x 41cm H
If you need a specific size please let us know prior to placing your order.
Please note, as this is a handmade product, dimensions & colour may vary from those shown in the photographs.
HANDMADE IN KENYA
Our journey into sustainable style began in Kenya, and the lion’s share of our woven baskets are Kenyan-made. Whilst every region of Kenya boasts its own rich natural bounty, each cooperative we partner with offers expertise in its own unique form of basketry. Weaving, dyeing and grass-rolling techniques differ across the regions as much as basket shapes, patterns and structures. These precious crafts are woven through the generations within families - passed along continuous thread from mother to daughter - protecting and preserving an art form as old as man.
Vast and colourful, vibrant and bursting with natural beauty and style, our fair trade baskets are as eclectic as their homeland and its people. From sisal grass to doum palm, banana leaf fibres to palm leaf, each weaving cooperative works with what is locally available and only what can be sustainably sourced, to produce beautiful baskets which are 100% Kenyan made, and ethically produced. All cow hide bag tags, straps, and basket labels are made from leather sourced as a by-product of the food industry. Natural dyes come from pounded roots, bark and vegetables of the region, whilst all synthetic dyes are sustainably sourced.
From the Kamba tribe to the camel-herding Ariaal pastoralists of Northern Kenya, you can read more about the lives of the Kenyan weavers we work with - and the wonderful baskets they produce - below.
