Basket Case

Last week, Victoria, my blogger friend, announced that she was having a link-up party for everyone to share an object that they love from their house. This is difficult for me. There are so many things that I love in my house. I travel frequently and pick up treasures on my journeys. I also enjoy garage sales and second-hand shops. Many of my valuables have come from the trash. Thus, my dilemma, what would I write about?

In the past, I have written blogs about the cool, circular couch that I found on Craigslist, the chaise lounge Douglas found on the curb, the drum I pulled out of the trash and turned into a side table. My art collection of women was the subject of yet another post, and in October, I wrote about the special pieces I have chosen to display on the shelves in the living room.

There are other special objects that I have not shared yet, but I cannot write about all of them in just one post. Luckily, on Sunday I received inspiration and decided to tell you about my baskets. I am literally a basket case! (pun intended) You may have noticed them displayed in my dining room.

My obsession with baskets began on my first trip to Charleston, South Carolina in March, 2011. If you have ever visited that city, I am sure that you have seen people weaving baskets. They are everywhere. The baskets are made of sweetgrass, and they smell heavenly. The tradition of basket-making was brought to this part of the world by the Africans, who carried their traditions with them when they were brought as slaves to South Carolina. Thankfully, they have been able to keep this ancient art alive. Charleston’s African-American Heritage is explained  better by someone who has more knowledge of it than I. The most that I can tell you is that I could smell the baskets as I was walking  into the City Market and knew that I had to have one. Can you spot me reveling in the scent?

I stopped to talk to one of the artists, Corey Alston and we spoke for over half an hour about the art and its origins. The baskets are expensive, as they should be, because they take so long to create. I never begrudge an artist the price they charge for their craft because I understand that is their lively hood.  Unfortunately, I did not have the money with me to purchase a big basket and opted to buy this small one instead.

One of the things that Corey told me was that the art of making coiled baskets was introduced by slaves from West Africa and that he had gone to Gambia to study the craft there as well. I became very excited because I had a trip planned to Senegal in June of the same year. I was only three months away from visiting the birthplace of this beautiful art and became obsessed with the idea of purchasing a basket there as well. I wanted to have one from Africa and one from America side by side in my home.

In June, Ousmane Pame, our wonderful host in Senegal was pleased that I had heard of their basket-making tradition. He assured me that he would take me to buy a basket, but he wanted to take me to a market outside of Dakar, the capital, where he thought the prices would be better and I would have more of a selection. I had to wait until the day before we left, but finally I was able to purchase a basket.

Not only did I buy one, but ended up purchasing six of the thousands I wanted to take home. It is shocking that buying six of anything was showing restraint, but I would have filled the entire plane if given the chance! They were all so beautiful. Several of the baskets I bought were so large that I had trouble fitting them in my luggage, but I was determined not to leave them behind. My dear friend Cyndy saved me by offering to take a couple of them in her suitcase.

The woman that sold them to me gave me this trivet as well.

I wish that I had pictures of all of the baskets that I bought. Many of them have been given away as gifts. My two favorites were large baskets with lids. I gave one of them to my mother and the other to my brother and his wife for their wedding. The only basket I kept was this large one that I had picked out for myself.

I chose this corner of the dining room to hang my treasures. Since things tend to look better when they are grouped in threes, I hung the basket from Charleston with the basket and trivet from Senegal.

On the other side of the window, I hung this basket tray. This was given to me wrapped in cellophane with a couple of gifts on top. I thought it would balance out the grouping.

This past Saturday, we received a visiting teacher from Rwanda at our house. Angela is in the United States with a group of students, and we are thrilled to have her in our home for a week. On Sunday, she told Douglas and I that she had a gift for us. She brought three baskets from Rwanda and asked us to choose two of them. She said that she was nervous when she saw that we already had baskets that we would not want any more. I assured her that one can never have too many beautiful works of art. I chose a basket with some yellow to tie into the colors of the trivet.

Douglas chose a black and white one.

Crème approved of our selections.

The baskets in Rwanda are made similarly to the ones from Western Africa, but there are slight differences. The ones from Rwanda are made with papyrus and woven together with sisal.

I am thrilled to have expanded my collection to another wall.

The dining room looks beautiful with all of the woven artwork.

Angela also gave us this carving of Africa.

I put it on the shelves in the living room between the two glass figure vases.

The shelves have changed some since I last wrote about them and look even better now. I love how the dark wood carving on the bottom balances the carved wooden box on the top shelf that was a gift from South Africa.

Here is one last look at the dining room with my woven lovelies. This is also a sneak peek at the new windows that I will unveil later on in the week.

Do NOT forget to check out the other bloggers treasures.

Happy Homemaking!