After visiting this month's Design Indaba, it appears that the world's leading designers and international buyers believe that basket weaving is the newest frontier in contemporary African decor. This ancient and unique art form merges traditional African weaving practices with a modern style and technique to produce amazing contemporary pieces.
A Southern African organisation at the forefront of this decor development is the
New Basket Workshop. This non-profit company assists rural Zimbabwean and Mozambican women and links their handmade woven basket designs directly to markets. The New Basket Workshop seeks to preserve and revive the techniques, products and skills of rural weavers.
The largely female group of weavers produces all the baskets by hand out of traditional material such as grass, roots and cane. They also produce recycled décor pieces from recyclable waste materials.
In Johannesburg, their beautiful designs are stocked at
Imagine Nation, 44 Stanley Ave, Milpark (011 726 8865) and in Cape Town at
Design Afrika, 42 Hare Ave, Woodstock (021 448 9761).
For more information contact francespotter@intekom.co.za or binky@mweb.co.za
