TUMIKIA: Handwoven Green, Yellow and Red Wool Tote Bag
Brought to you by weavers of the Kamba tribe in Eastern Kenya, TUMIKIA is a real one-off: a beautiful basket bag with hints of green, yellow and red. Each of our Nifty Knit Basket Bags is woven out of the yarn from recycled jumpers to the personal design and colour choices of the weaver.
Modelled on traditional Kenyan kiondo (kee-yon/-doh) baskets with the addition of cow-hide shoulder straps, these baskets were originally woven by mothers as wedding gifts for their daughters. Once a declining craft, today kiondo weaving is experiencing a revival.
To own one of our wool basket bags is to become an important part of our journey: a story of sustainability and craftsmanship. We are proud to support these weavers, providing a sustainable source of income for farming communities whose primary income can be unpredictable. Each woven basket bag is supplied with a thank you card from the weaving cooperative, and you can meet the weavers HERE.
Material: SISAL & RECYCLED WOOL (NATURAL & SYNTHETIC) LEATHER STRAPS
Dimensions: 40cmW X 30cmH approx (width is measured at the widest part of the bag)
Strap Length: 29cm approx
Leather used is a by-product of the food industry.
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.
