VIZURI: Black and Natural Storage Baskets

These ethically produced storage baskets are hand woven in Tanzania from local milulu grass. VIZURI baskets make perfect planters for your indoor jungle and look fantastic all over the home, keeping everything from loo rolls to newspapers, magazines, toiletries and scarves tidy. The weavers themselves use these baskets in their homes in Tanzania for keeping kitchen staples like maize and beans dry.Boasting black patterned stripes against a natural grass base, VIZURI was produced by a skilled weaver belonging to a small weaving group of 120 members in the Iringa region of Tanzania. The milulu reeds used to produce these woven storage baskets are often found in swamps and riverbeds, but also grown specifically for basket weaving. Its leaves are cut, split, dyed using natural dyes and dried before weaving begins. Small baskets take up to a week to weave, whilst larger storage baskets can take three weeks. The impact of these beautiful baskets is exponential. The collective we partner with to produce these baskets supports a group of lead artisans who recruit and train weavers in their communities whilst training in quality control, bookkeeping, logistics and communication. Weaving brings a constant income stream to these women: a sustainable alternative to the unpredictable farming livelihoods many relied on before weaving. Basket weaving enables these women to budget for family life in a more sustainable way: buying uniform, paying school fees, paying family medical bills and putting money way in savings for unforeseen expenses and emergencies. Some weavers also use their basket weaving earnings to purchase solar panels for charging household appliances and phones. A number of weavers invested some of their weaving income in small-scale agricultural enterprises as a secondary source of income.
Material: MILULU GRASS