Notes

What is unusual about this basket is that it is much taller and steeper than a typical Kavango basket. The technique to start this basket is chequer weave or checkerwork. The Kavango weavers originally made their baskets with a thick bundle of grass for the core. To enhance their baskets’ marketability, the weavers were encouraged to make the coils finer and tighter by wrapping over very thin grass core bundles. To obtain the dark brown colour, palm leaves are boiled with the bark of Euclea divinorum tree roots.

- Dr Elizabeth Terry

Provenance

Dr Elizabeth Terry Collection.