Unfinished Display Basket
An unfinished display basket that shows the Zulu wire weave in progress, a striking talking point for a shop.
Zulu weavers turn plastic-coated, lead-free telephone wire into brightly colored art, fusing traditional craftsmanship with a modern material. Handwoven in Zululand, South Africa, these functional pieces come in mesmerizing designs and vibrant colors, and every one is handmade and fairly traded.
Use it to demonstrate the craft or as a raw, sculptural display piece.
This is a wholesale listing for shops and makers who want a range of these baskets to display or resell. You will receive baskets very similar to the one pictured, with natural variation in color and pattern.
Product Size: Approximately 4-6 inches Across X 2.5 inches Tall plus loose wires
Material: Coated Wire
Weaving Details
Recycled wire is rarely used anymore because of its scarcity and the fact that using recycled wire produces a basket of lesser quality.
Due to the very high price of copper, which is used in telephone wire, weavers are now using an annealed steel core wire that looks just like telephone wire.
The wire we use is custom manufactured in special colors for the weavers using some recycled and all lead-free materials. The wire is manufactured in South Africa.
Weaving Zulu wire baskets in South Africa
Since wire baskets are woven by many men due to the difficult nature of weaving wire, they are able to stay home on their tribal lands instead of moving to cities to look for work. In the rural groups we work with, the family units are preserved so that the African basket weavers and their families can live more traditional lifestyles.
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