Wedding Basket from Zulu

This lidded basket is masterfully handcrafted by artisans using the same age-old techniques found in Rwanda’s national museum. Lightweight and delicately woven, it makes a beautiful display piece, or storage for treasures. We love sharing this beauty with you from the heart of Rwanda. The teardrop basket’s beautiful design is reminiscent of the layers of sloping hills that make Rwanda’s landscape so gorgeous.

The Peace Basket artisans partner with an expert bamboo weaver who learned from his father before him. The bamboo weaver creates the inner frame for the basket, and then the grass weaver creates the beautiful exterior. So this is a two-stage, two-artisan basket. The grasses are colored using a banana flower as an applicator. The flower’s blue sap bonds with the soot from the bottom of a cooking pot to color the grasses black. The rust color comes from the dust of a local rock, applied to the grasses with the banana flower.

Dimensions: 9” Diameter x 15” H (including lid)