Check our store for African Bolga Baskets, batiks, carvings, textiles, artifacts and other fun handmade items from around the globe. Allow us to help you find hard to find items.
Our purpose is to consciously support less fortunate artisans and cottage industries while providing our discerning customers with a choice of quality, hand crafted, home, office and gift products that give authentic global appeal to their decorating and giving.
Our products are purchased from organizations who practice fair trade principles. Some have jumped through the hoops and expenses of being certified FAIR TRADE and will be marked as such. Almost all of the products are made of recycled, or sustainable materials.
Thank you for shopping at First Choice Decor!!
About Bolga Baskets
GHANA, WEST AFRICA
Patience Bawa Abakuri saw a need in her country of Northern Ghana. The terrible cycle of poverty continues, especially in the rural areas where weather combines with other factors to hold the people in the grip of deprivation. She saw that it was the children who suffer most. Patience believed that by improving the incomes of the poor rural women, the fate of the children would also improve. Based on this belief and acknowledging the value of the women's talents in weaving and creating products, she established her Enterprise for the primary purpose of helping women to find markets for their products. She identifies women in the community who have the skills to produce desirable items such as baskets, pottery, beads, or textiles. When a market for any of these products is located and an order is received, the artisans are engaged to make the products according to the specifications of the particular order. Before the artisan begins, she is asked to make a prioritized list of her needs. She may need food, utensils, cloth for clothing, children's school uniforms, fees or supplies. Pat buys these items and gives them to the woman, to be paid for out of the proceeds of the order. When the product is ready, the weaver is paid half the price, and the other half is applied to the items she took as a need. This continues until she has finished paying for the items she has received. Then she may take other needed items. Pat also locates and makes available other products, besides those produced by the women, in order to help raise the funds necessary to provide as many items as possible on the needs lists. These other products include drums, masks and wood carvings.
Currently Pat's product line includes baskets of many sorts, hats, mudcloths, batiks, drums, masks and hand-made beads. Patex uses fair trade practices.No order is too small or too big. Every order helps put food in the bowl of a child or provide other necessities for him and his family. Mr. & Mrs. Dominic and Patience Abakuri of Patex Enterprise maintain not only direct business contacts, but personal relationships with the women weavers in the Yekini tribe, and pay the weavers according to fair trade guidelines. He has chosen not to go through the hoops and expense of becoming certified with the Fair Trade Association, but follows, and often exceeds, the fair trade guidelines.
Fair Trade means an equitable and fair partnership between marketers in the developed "first world" and producers in underdeveloped parts of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and elsewhere. A fair trade partnership works to provide low-income artisans and farmers with a living wage for their work.
Patex is committed to paying our artisans fair and satisfactory prices for their products.
Patex abhors and strongly discourages the use of child labour in any form throughout the entire production processes of our handcrafts.
Through our Support Programs, Patex returns some of our profits into the participating communities to enhance the social lives of our artisans.
Patex seeks to build self confidence in our artisans by demonstrating that their crafts are valuable and that they are entitled to a decent income from their labour.
Patex encourages our artisans to adopt environmentally friendly and sustainable methods of production which will assist in preserving our planet for future generations.
Zulu Baskets
Ukhamba is the name given to the basket traditionally used by the Zulu people to make and store their ceremonial beers. The baskets are handwoven of Ilala Palm leaves which swell when they are wet. These baskets become tight when soaked, allowing them to be used for the tribal "home brews". We personally don't advise that for what we consider a piece of art, but I have had to soak one or two for the purpose of reshaping them, and they did hold water and it did not hurt them a bit. The Zulu weavers take much time and care to weave beautiful designs and colors into their baskets. Each basket's geometric design traditionally tells a story about the weaver. Each basket comes with a tag describing the various designs and their meanings as well as the dye ingredients. Today many artisans choose to eliminate their story and simply create beautiful designs to please the collectors' eyes.
Traditional Zulu Beer Baskets have long been considered some of the most beautiful and colorful baskets made by any peoples. These hand-crafted baskets are made by the women of Zululand, South Africa, and have become a popular source of second incomes for the families while at the same time reviving a nearly lost tradition. The young women are taught the age-old art of weaving and often make their own "marriage basket."
Do they really use the baskets for beer? Yes. The Zulu people have traditionally made a ceremonial sorghum beer that they store in these baskets. Beause of the tightness of the weave and the swelling properties of the Ilala Palm fronds used, these rigid baskets are watertight. Smaller beer baskets can be used for canister for storing food items like grains, nuts, or beans, among other things.
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