Basket Delta Palm Square - Bangladesh

Tough and good-looking, kaisa grass makes a useful, fun 9x9 basket for your kitchen. Hand-woven. Kaisa is a sturdy wild grass that dries from its natural light green to a pale, almost tan color. Artisans cut kaisa grass from riverbanks during the monsoon season, leaving the roots for the next year‘;s crop. Later growth of kaisa is thicker and stronger, and is used to make fences in the villages. The cut kaisa grass is sundried and cleaned, then woven into baskets.

• Kaisa grass
• 22.75 SQ cm
• Made in Bangladesh by artisans working with Hajiganj

Hajiganj works with marginalized people in Bangladesh's Nilphamari District. The group is located in one of the poorest areas in Bangladesh, where people are mostly dependent on hiring out to rich farmers who pay very low wages. Benefits to artisans include profit distribution, a producer security fund, medical allowance and skill development. Hajiganj was established in 1998 in the village of the same name, in northwestern Bangladesh. Initially the women artisans made baskets from kaisa grass, later adding a crochet unit.