POPCORN: Snack Motif Embroidered Woven Storage Basket
A stripy carton overflowing with popcorn, hand embroidered in colourful yarn, adorns this ethically hand-woven sisal basket. Woven in rural Kenya and embroidered by a Nairobi based artist named Nduta, this small storage basket can be used all over the home - as a woven planter or desk tidy, or for keeping craft materials, pencils, toiletries or jewellery in.
This playful popcorn design belongs to a growing collection of hand embroidered baskets that British illustrator Jacqueline Colley has designed for The Basket Room: this popcorn basket is brand new for 2023. Nduta has worked on every embroidered collection, and has even trained a small group of women in embroidery to meet demand for these special baskets.
Woven from natural undyed sisal and sand-dyed sisal, these hand embroidered baskets bring vital work to several groups of Kenyan artisans. The weavers, taught basket weaving by their own mothers and grandmothers, make a safe and reliable secondary income from weaving. In times of drought, flexible work like basket weaving enables these women - who otherwise rely solely on a farming income - to better support their families.
Material: SISAL & BRANDED LEATHER TAB
Dimensions (approx): 14.5-16.5cm DIA x 14.5-16.5cm 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.
