Bolgatanga Market Basket - Ghana,Africa

Bolgatanga Market Basket Ghana, Africa
Round grass basket with bold stripes and a thick, leather-wrapped handle. 15 in. dia. x 13 in. h

Ghana :  Trade Aid Integrated

In the Upper East region of Ghana, over 90% of the people live below the poverty line, as identified by the Ghanaian government. Trade Aid Integrated is a non-profit organization created to find employment for the rural poor of northern Ghana. Generations of women from 19 different communities near Bolgatonga, the provincial capital, have learned to weave the distinctive and brightly-colored bolga baskets, using sturdy elephant grass, which grows along rivers and streams.

Shaping Bolga Baskets
Ghana Bolga Baskets are Easy and Fun to Shape.
When Your Baskets Arrive:
When you receive your baskets, they may be nested up to 5 deep, or single, or anywhere in between. Because of the large size and relative low price of these baskets, they must be shipped nested or ‘flattened’ in order to ship them in a cost-effective manner.
Taking Apart Nested Baskets:
Remove the inside basket first and work your way out until you have only the outer basket left. It may take a little ‘elbow grease’. As you remove it, you can push around the handle and rim of the basket to manipulate it out of the stack. During this stage, we like to wear lightweight gloves and long sleeves to avoid any possibility of
getting small slivers.
Wetting and Shaping:
Now that the baskets are taken apart, you need to wet the grass (keep leather handle dry). You can spray the grass with a hose, submerge in a sink or bath, wet in a shower - or anything else. We prefer to fill a plastic storage box with water and dip the baskets for 3-5 seconds
each. Make sure you get the rim of the basket nice and wet too. Then we set the baskets aside for a couple minutes while we dip a dozen or so baskets. Go back to your first dipped, and shape by hand
from the inside and outside (no gloves or long sleeves needed). You can also roll the basket on a flat surface as you shape it to make it smooth. Make the bottom rounded or flat (we prefer flat). Shape
the rim to be round or oval (we prefer round). Shape the handles where they attach to the rim.
Note:
A small amount of dye may come off while the basket is wet (especially if submerged in water), so don’t do this step wearing light clothes. The colors will not run on the basket. In high humidity areas, you may not want to dip the basket in water and instead simply spray with a squirt bottle.
Drying and Trimming:
Place the baskets in the sun and let dry quickly and completely. If there are any little end pieces of grass sticking off, you can safely trim them with small scissors and the strength of the basket will not be affected. Also note that over the years, the more the baskets are exposed to UV sunlight during use, the more the colors will ‘mellow’.
How Long Does This Take?
Although these directions are long and detailed, it should take no longer than 2-5 minutes per basket to perfectly shape them (not including drying time). The process can also be repeated at any time
without harm to the baskets. All of the procedures described here can be experimented with and adjusted to work best for you.