Buying One of a Kind
To sum it up, sizes and patterns will vary. Part of empowerment is giving weavers room to explore their creativity.
With each order, we ask for certain styles and color combinations: for example, '200 large shopper baskets with gold and indigo and a diamond pattern.' Within those 200, individual weavers may decide to make it an offset diamond or a center one. To add a checkerboard or vertical pattern. To use more gold than indigo. And so on.
If you were to visit our warehouse, you'd see color themes with many variations. We want that. It's good for artists and good for preservation of culture.
How to Decide?
To help you choose, we note whether the basket you'll receive is the exact one pictured. We tend to reserve this for more expensive products: Moses baskets, sculptures and dog beds. Our tote baskets are also where we encourage full-on creativity. Each of those is one of a kind.
With others, especially shoppers and rounds, we ask for some grace. We'll group items by color and show an example or two of it. In these cases, the item you receive will not be the exact one pictured. But it will be gorgeous.
Black or Red Handles?
We usually receive both for styles like shoppers, pots, rounds, natural color ovals and round purses. If you have a strong preference, please let us know in the cart notes.
