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Basket Weaving

Mutapo Ceramics Marjorie Wallace Afrika Handmade
Basket Weaving Decor Design Zimbabwe

Mutapo Ceramics Inspired by Zimbabwe’s Basket Weaving Traditions

Tucked away in Harare’s Miombo Woodland you will find Mutapo, a ceramic studio producing one-of-a-kind collectable crockery. Owned by Zimbabwean ceramicist, Marjorie Wallace, Mutapo has gained international recognition for its intricately decorated porcelain ceramics often coloured with the studio’s signature blue and white glaze. The patterns adorning each product are inspired by the patterns found in Africa’s basket weaving traditions. Marjorie’s love for baskets stems from childhood and her memories of being surrounded by baskets.

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Woven Baskets Swaziland Gone Rural
Basket Weaving Decor Niger Rwanda Swaziland

Africa’s Basket Weavers Telling Stories Through Basketry

Basketry is a skill that has been practiced up and down the continent for centuries with examples from the past coveted by collectors around the world. Today Africa’s basket weavers are redefining the art form employing ingenious methods to create modern functional home decor products. But whilst these baskets may appear to be merely functional or decorative products, taking the time to look beyond the aesthetics reveals the layers of stories woven into the strands; as basketry -a skill traditionally practiced by women- carries within it the stories of livelihoods, of hopes, dreams, achievements, and sacrifices. Highlighting just how powerfully […]

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Baba Tree Ghana Jemima Akologo Basket Atelier Fifty Five Feature
Basket Weaving Decor Ghana

The Baba Tree Basket Company

Bolgatanga in Ghana’s Upper East Region is synonymous with basket weaving, and the distinctive round-bellied Bolga Market basket with its sturdy handles. Building on the region’s basket weaving heritage local business The Baba Tree Basket Company is producing some stunning gravity-defying basket designs, woven from locally sourced natural materials and dyed in vibrant colours.

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Basket Weaving Burkina Faso Ghana Mali

AAKS x UNHCR Weaving For Change

Luxury artisanal accessory brand AAKS has launched a stunning home decor collection inspired by the theme Weaving for Change. The collection comprises five distinctive handcrafted lamps and light pendants, each created in partnership with women artisans from the Tuareg community in Northern Mali who are living as refugees in Burkina Faso. In working with this Tuareg community AAKS are helping to celebrate and preserve the community’s cultural identity and their time-honoured basket weaving traditions, a philosophy that has defined AAKS’s work with local communities in Ghana.

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Basket Weaving Decor Design

SafariFusion Modern African Interior Decor Accessories

Loving Safari Fusion’s beautifully styled 2015-16 Lookbook of modern African interior decor accessories and African baskets collection entitled, Woven & Stitched. The colourful, unique and functional collection presents the best in contemporary basketry made in Africa. Woven & Stitched is inspired by African basket weavers, and has brought together a range of grass and fibre baskets that showcase the way classical techniques and ancient traditions have been rejuvenated through the use of modern colour palettes and forms.

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Basket Weaving Decor

Gone Rural Hand Painted African Baskets At Maud Interiors

Just spotted on Maud Interiors, via Pinterest these one-of-a-kind handwoven African baskets from Gone Rural sporting colourful hand painted splashes of paint in a stylistic nod to abstract expressionism. I have previously featured the work of Swazi-based social enterprise, Gone Rural on the site, and the organisation continues to shake up the industry with their innovative approach to contemporary African basketry. [Main image credit: Gone Rural Hand Painted Baskets – Maud Interiors]

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Basket Weaving

Basket Case II Showcasing Contemporary Zimbabwe Baskets

In 2010 I featured Basket Case, a pioneering exhibition of contemporary Zimbabwe baskets from some of the southern African country’s leading basket-weaving organisations. The exhibition was the initiative of The New Basket Workshop, a South African based organisation that works with rural basketry groups in a number of African countries including Zimbabwe, Ghana, Ethiopia and South Africa to assist with areas such as product development and accessing international markets. Building on Basket Case, 2014 saw the presentation of Basket Case II, a showcase of cutting-edge basketry produced by a select group of local and international artists and designers commissioned to work […]

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Basket Weaving

SCP Blocks and Peaks Basket Collection Made In Africa

These gorgeously colourful and practical basket made in Africa are the result of a cross-cultural collaboration between the Malawian-based creative social enterprise, People of the Sun and British designer Donna Wilson. The collection entitled ‘Blocks and Peaks’ was created exclusively for SCP, a leading UK manufacturer and retailer of modern innovate furniture. [Main image credit:Blocks and Peaks Basket Collection – Donna Wilson and People of the Sun for SCP]

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Basket Weaving

Lupane Women’s Centre Zimbabwe Modern African Baskets

Looking like they have been swirled with delicate watercolours, this gorgeous range of traditionally handcrafted modern African baskets is the result of a partnership between the Lupane Women’s Centre in Zimbabwe and the Kingston University Design School in the UK, bringing a contemporary edge to traditional African design. The initiative entitled, Kingston Project Africa was created to facilitate the exchange and support of knowledge between both regions, and led by Professor Catherine McDermott utilises the expertise of academics, industry practitioners and curators across various projects and collaborations. [Main image credit: Baskets – Lupane Women’s Centre in Partnership with Kingston Project Africa]

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Basket Weaving Competitions . Offers . Giveaways

Mbare Points Du Jour African Basket Reader Offer

A few months ago I featured a beautifully woven palm dish handcrafted by the Tavie Co-operative in Niger, click here to read. Currently retailing on Mbare, the full African basket dish range incorporates unique details such as silver Touareg discs placed in the centre; as seen in the Coucher De Soleil and Rayon De Soleil styles; whilst other designs feature indigo thread in intense hues, creating a striking contrast against the natural colour of the leaves. One of the dishes that incorporates the indigo thread is the stylish Points Du Jour, whose design sees the thread scattered around at seemingly random points. The placement of the […]

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Basket Weaving Decor

Contemporary African Design Tavie Co-operative Tuareg Baskets

The beauty of this woven dish radiates from its core, which features a beautifully engraved silver disc at the centre, which is said to symbolise the sun and is characteristic of Tuareg pattens. Framed with an indigo halo, the addition of the disc adds a contemporary African design edge, elevating the humble woven basket to a stunning decorative object, that would work well hung on the wall or placed on a plate stand.

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Basket Weaving

African Baskets Woven Bolgatanga Baskets From Ghana

Last week the EU announced the potential banning of plastic bags as it outlined proposals to reduce the number of plastic bags used in Europe each year, after a public consultation revealed that more than four billion were thrown away each year. After massive campaign a few years ago lately I have noticed fewer people using the jute and other alternative shopping bags whilst doing their shopping, myself included and so was not surprised to find out that after four years of decline the use of carrier bags in the UK actually rose by 5% in 2010.

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Basket Weaving Decor

Modern African Decor Senegalese Prayer Hampers

Ditch bog standard plastic laundry baskets in favour of some elegantly coiled modern African decor hampers hand-woven by the Wolof women of Senegal and available on The Travelers Collection, a US-based offering a diverse collection of globally inspired personal and home ware accessories and gifts. Simply stylish, the hampers are made from recycled prayer mats that have been woven using njodax grass and plastic strips and come in subtle soothing colour palettes that bring a touch of modern African decor into the interior. Available in different sizes, the hampers have ample room, not only concealing mountains of laundry but lend themselves to […]

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Basket Weaving

Gone Rural Swaziland Redefining African Basket Design

Picking up from where I left off on my exploration into the different types of basket making found across the continent; I find myself quite taken by these glass bowls edged with a woven basket band. Created by Swaziland-based, Gone Rural who are redefining African basket design I came across them on the US-based Amaridian Gallery, and they give a fresh updated look to the traditional woven basket. The way the basket weaving techniques have been combined with recycled glass has produced some beautiful, unique looking bowls. [image credit: Gone Rural – Amaridian Gallery] A socially responsible business set up by the late Jenny Thorne […]

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Basket Weaving Decor

Design: Innovative Basket Furniture

The Jeddah Seat [Africa Inspired]     [Image source: Elle Decoration – South Africa] Take a giant, oversized woven basket and tip it on its side, add some sturdy wooden legs and voilà you have a chair, the Jeddah Seat to be precise. I appreciate its not that simple but the resulting effect is an ingenious approach to the humble, yet stylish woven basket giving it a contemporary look in the process. Woven from rush, the Jeddah chair by Italian designer Angelo Figus is a beautiful example of handwoven craftsmanship and attention to detail. The chair formed part of a 2009 exhibition, called […]

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Basket Weaving Decor Rwanda

Design: Gahaya Links Baskets Celebrating Peace

Gahaya Links [Rwanda] [Image credits: top, Fairwinds Trading; bottom, Gahaya Links] Following on from my previous posting about the Zimbabwean Basket Weavers, I have become increasingly fascinated by the defining characteristics and regional differences in patterns, forms and traditional uses and thought it would be nice to dedicate a separate posting for each of the various country styles I come across. In Rwanda the traditional art of basketry has been used as a vehicle to build hope, bringing together communities once divided by the Genocide of 1994. Recognising the potential towards fostering healing, Rwandan sisters, Joy Ndungutse and Janet Nkubana founded Gahaya Links, a […]

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Basket Weaving Decor Zimbabwe

Design: ‘Basket Case’ A showcase of Contemporary Zimbabwean Basketry

The Basket Case Exhibition [Zimbabwe] [Image credit: BBC] I came across a photo-editorial on BBC about an exhibition called ‘The Basket Case’, currently being held at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Harare. The National Gallery is beautiful space and a place I know well having spent many a time there perusing the latest exhibits and completing assignments. I am glad to see that it is still putting on inspiring exhibits. ‘The Basket Case’ exhibition is all about connecting the past and the present, traditional with contemporary and is based on a project by interior accessories designer, Heath Nash and the traditional basket weavers […]

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