TEKA: Soft Lavender Woven Storage Basket
Bring sweet lavender tones and natural woven texture to your interiors with our pretty TEKA baskets, which come in three sizes. Hand woven from local sisal grass by a talented craftswoman working within a small weaving group in rural Kenya, these pastel baskets can be used all over the home - as woven planters or desk tidies, or for keeping craft materials, pencils, toiletries or jewellery in.
The weavers who produce these storage baskets used to travel regularly to Nairobi to sell their wares, but The Basket Room now provides them with regular weaving work which can be done from the safety and convenience of their own homes. Finished baskets are kept in purpose-built mud huts before being shipped to us in the UK. As demand for woven homewares ever increases, this skilful group continues to grow under the guidance of its bold Chairlady, Madam Dorcas Ndinda.
Weaving takes place primarily during the dry seasons, since most weavers are from farming communities who rely on farming (and rainfall) to put food on the table. To buy one of our woven baskets is to support us in our mission to bring women empowerment through craft and trade.
Material: SISAL & BRANDED LEATHER TAB
Dimensions (approx):
17-19cm DIA x 17-19cm H
22-24cm DIA x 22-24cm H
27-29cm DIA x 27-29cm 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.
