Hand Woven Bolga Basket #101- Ghana, Africa

Bolga Basket - Ghana, Africa

Round style with a multicolored weave. Used in the old days as luggage for travel. Now used as a market basket. Made in the villages between Ghana & Burkina Faso.
Actual size 15"diam; and 15" High.  Each basket will vary in color.

The baskets are exclusively woven by the indigenous
Frafra people of a historical town in Northern Ghana
called Bolgatanga. Bolga is known as the crafts center of northern Ghana, with a large central market. Weaving has been a traditional skill of these people over the years. The geographical land area of Bolgatanga is not fertile enough for extensive agricultural activities. Coupled with an erratic rainfall pattern and generally harsh weather conditions,handicraft activities such as basket weaving, leather work and pottery are undertaken mostly by the women to supplement their incomes from the subsistence of farming activities.
Fair Trade Practices:
The weaving group has a mission: to assist the poor rural women of Northern Ghana in earning decent incomes from the fruits of their labors in order to care for their children. We believe when the woman can create an income, the trickle-down effect puts food into the bowl of a child, and is a way of promoting self-esteem for the women, children and village.
Creation Process:
• Elephant grass straw is collected from the tops of the stalk, then each piece is split in half vertically by biting through it.
• Each half of the split straw is then twisted tightly by rolling it against a weaver’s leg to give it strength.
• The straw is put in bunches and dyed in boiling water with the dye added. For bright colors the straw is dyed yellow first, then the color.
• The weaver carefully selects appropriate straw for the base, sides and handle. The selection of the proper grass for the proper parts of the basket is critical to good weaving.
• Weaving starts at the base and works up to the rim. The rims are generally finished flat, or wrapped with straw to form a tube like edge.
• There are a variety of different handles, but all are made with a sturdy wrapping technique around a grass
core.
• Remaining bits of straw that are sticking out of the basket are carefully trimmed off. The trimming is a
important because it determines how the basket feels to the touch.
• Leather handles are usually applied by local leather workers.
• A medium basket takes 3 days. Ghana, West Africa
Bolgatanga Baskets or “Tiia”

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.