NYIGU: Black & Orange Duo Colour Block Woven Basket
Bring a pop of charismatic Kenyan colour to your desk, living room, chest of drawers or kitchen table with a NYIGU colour block basket in turmeric orange and jet black. Hand woven from local sisal grass by a skilled craftswoman working within a small cooperative in rural Kenya, these bold and beautiful baskets come in three different sizes for use all over the home. They fabulous fruit baskets and desk tidies, and can be used as both small and large planters for all manner of house plants. Need more inspo? Check out our basket uses page HERE.
The Basket Room is proud to work with weaving cooperatives in several rural corners of Africa, and the talented craftswomen in this particular women’s weaving group are extremely accomplished in producing these repeat design baskets, using their tape measures to produce five set sizes. The women behind our baskets have woven from a young age: this meticulous, age-old craft is passed along the female line, from grandmothers to mothers to daughters. Sisal grass is sourced ready-rolled when orders come in, and is hand-dyed in large vats before a traditional twining method is used to produce each basket. Where once these women used to have to travel to Nairobi to sell their woven baskets, today The Basket Room places regular and fairly-paid orders with this most adept group, and completed baskets are stored in purpose-built mud huts.
Championing all the values, working with cooperatives empowers women to support their families with a flexible income in the dry seasons, where subsistence farming becomes unsustainable. When you choose one of our woven baskets you actively support these weavers’ livelihoods, forging our commitment to them. Each beautifully woven basket is supplied with a thank you card from the weaving cooperative, and you can meet these weavers right HERE.
Material: SISAL & BRANDED LEATHER TAB
Dimensions:
XS: 14-16CM DIA x 9.5-10.50CM H
SMALL: 19-21CM DIA x 14.5-15.5CM H
MEDIUM: 23-27CM DIA x 19-21CM 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.
