Telephone wire and ilala palm, off the R22
See what is on the shelf
Sixteen women work between their own kitchens and the shed behind the co-op, coiling copper and plastic telephone wire over a grass core the same way their mothers coiled grass on its own. A single bowl is anywhere from four days to three weeks of winding, which is why the price on this page is a real price and not a place to start bargaining from.
2015 Eight wire bowls wound off a scrap reel from the exchange at Mtubatuba, sold from a trestle table at the Saturday market. 2018 The ilala weavers on the road out of Hluhluwe join, and palm stands on the shelf beside the wire for the first time. 2021 The lidded range, after two years of arguing about how far a lid should sit down into the mouth of a basket. 2024 A hundred women weaving, and the first crate to leave the country goes to a shop in Rotterdam.
Workshop off the R22, Hluhluwe — open weekdays, or ask us to send sizes and weights before you order.
