MIDOMO: Embroidered Lips Basket
Produced in collaboration with Anthropologie, this chic collection of three face baskets created in a Picasso-inspired, line drawing style are brand new for 2020. Capturing a powerful interiors trend for celebrating the female form, we think you’re going to love these striking ladies…
We have once again partnered with the exceptionally talented Nduta - an artist working in Nairobi – to produce these woven baskets. Each basket has been handwoven in a Kenyan weaving cooperative using a mixture of natural undyed and sand-dyed sisal, and each face hand embroidered in black yarn by Nduta in her workshop.
These handwoven baskets make incredible planters – especially when filled with tumbling greenery – and they’ll bring a splash of unique style to your home office, bedside table or bathroom shelving.
The weavers of these baskets are taught by their own mothers and grandmothers and make a vital secondary income fulfilling basket orders from THE BASKET ROOM. In times of unpredictable drought and a worldwide pandemic, flexible work like weaving enables these women - who otherwise rely solely on farming income - to better support their families throughout the seasons.
Woven from natural undyed sisal and sand-dyed sisal.
Material: SISAL, WOOL & BRANDED LEATHER TAB
Dimensions: 14.5-15.5CM DIA X 14.5-15.5CM H
Please note, due to the handmade nature of the basket, the colours may vary from that shown in the photograph.
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.
