Best Places To Find Wicker Baskets
Wicker baskets have been popular for centuries owing to their beautiful look and light nature. In ancient days, they used to be hand-woven from sisal and other tough fibers that could withstand the test of time. They were used in market places to display goods, in the palaces, in homes and mostly in trade routes. Because they are made of verylight material, they can be large without necessarily being heavy which makes them popular for laundry. In the US, they are used as such and it is common to find two or three large baskets in every home. These serve to help people organize their clothes and to carry things. Some baskets are actually just used for decorative purposes. These are the ones which are usually gathered during tourist trips to exotic regions of the world such as the Middle East or Africa.
The baskets are usually made of strong fiber that is able to withstand pressure. Such fiber can be wicker, sisal, reed grass, bamboo and sometimes even wheat. These are then woven by hand by expert craftsmen and women. In places like Africa, women weave these baskets and sell them at the market. These baskets usually fetch even higher prices in the West especially the hand-woven ones. When tourists visit these places, they usually carry some of these baskets as sourvenirs. The hand-woven baskets are usually more original and more durable than machine-woven ones and that is why they are considered more expensive. So tourist trips to the countries where the baskets are woven is one way of getting the baskets.
Baskets can also be easily purchased at local large department stores such as Walmart which stocks just about any size shape and color.While these baskets are of great quality and will serve any purpose that any other such basket would serve, they are mostly mass-produced although some brands from Mexico are hand-woven.
Another way of getting genuine hand-woven baskets is to check on Craigslist. This is an online market place that is set as a garage-sale style marketplace. People from almost all the world’s major cities are invited to post free classified ads of whatever they are selling. African wicker baskets, which are usually in great demand but in short supply can easily be found here. If they are not readily available all you have to do is post a wanted ad where you describe in detail what you want and someone will get back with you if they have something that matches what you are looking for.
E Bay is also another way of getting nice hard-to-find baskets. EBay is the world’s largest online auction site and boasts millions of users per day. Here people from all over the world buy and sell things. Sometimes you can buy or sell directly via another person or you can use a third party escrow company that guarantees that all the parties have adhered to all the rules and regulations of the deal before the money is released to the seller. This is a safe way to guarantee that there are no scams.
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Modern Uses Of Wicker Baskets
Wicker baskets are very popular especially the hand-woven kind. They are made of wicker, bamboo, wheat and other grass rashes. Others are made of twigs and osiers. They mostly originated from Africa and the Middle East where they were used for a variety of factors ranging from carrying food, clothes and even babies. The Biblical story of Moses is also an epic tale of how a baby was placed on a basket raft and left to float downstream. The fibers used to weave the baskets depended on where the weavers were located. In areas where reeds were the predominant grass, the baskets tended to be made of reed grass.
Today, baskets are no longer predominantly hand-woven but are manufactured in plants. The material that makes them has also changed radically. It is not uncommon nowadays to see baskets made of plastic which is a real deviation from the original African model. African baskets are still highly in demand because they are hand-woven and feature have very precise weaving techniques. Baskets were used for trade to carry fruits, grain, nuts and other material. They also featured baskets that carried fish and were mostly used for fish especially on long-distant caravan trade routes. Today, baskets have different uses.
Decorative
There are people who buy antique African baskets not to use but simply for decorative use. They hang them in their living room or art rooms. For tourists especially those that have visited Africa, hand-woven baskets are especially popular. They simply serve as souvenirs.
Laundry
In the US, many people use wicker baskets as laundry baskets. It is common to see many homes having two or three baskets; one for dirty clothes and another for clean clothes. They are popular as laundry baskets because they allow air to circulate throughout the clothes thus giving them a fresh smell after they have been laundered. They are also light to carry meaning they can carry a huge load of clothes and still offer convenience.
Wicker baskets are easy to find. All you have to do is pay a visit to the local department store and there they are, in all shapes colors and sizes. They are also quite affordable now because they are mass-produced as opposed to before when they were predominantly hand-woven. Although it is also good to mention that although they are mass-produced, there are many people who prefer the original hand-woven baskets. This is because they are considered somewhat of an art when they are hand-woven. When tourists visit Africa, they always look for the hand-woven baskets to carry back home as sourvenirs. These types of baskets are not used for any other use other than for decoration.
Picnic
Wicker baskets are also great for picnics and most families prefer them because they are light to carry and attractive to look at.
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Where To Buy Wicker Baskets
Wicker baskets are small mostly hand-woven baskets that are made of fiber such as wicker, wood, bamboo or sisal. They are well aerated and light not to mention very good to look at. These baskets have been common in many places in the world and have been used domestically and in trade for many centuries. Today the baskets are still very much used in homes and are popular as laundry baskets and picnic baskets. But where can one buy these baskets?
The best place is to check with the large department stores such Walmart, Target, Foleys and the like. If you took a walk in the home improvement isle you will see many beautifully hand-crafted baskets in many shapes and colors. These are also quite affordable owing to the fact that many baskets are now being mass-produced.
As we have mentioned, baskets are now mass-produced and this has reduced their prices. But in spite of this, there are many that still insist on hand-woven baskets. This is because anything that is hand-woven is considered an art. Africa makes extremely good hand-woven baskets that are still greatly in demand despite the fact that many other countries now manufacture them mechanically. But African hand-woven baskets are very hard to find and original hand-woven baskets are highly sort after. There are now companies that are committed to buying these baskets from the weavers and reselling them to the West and Japan. This in some ways has been a great economic help to these weavers who in most cases live in economically-ravaged countries.
Another great place to shop for wicker baskets is online. E Bay is the world’s largest marketplace with millions of people the world over buying and selling all manner of conceivable goods. What makes EBay a great place to shop from is that the site uses an auction model where people can shop based on how much they are willing to spend. Understandably, there are many that are apprehensive regarding shopping online because of identity theft. There may be some truth to this but EBay has solved this issue by dealing with escrow companies. An escrow company is a third party company that guarantees that both parties have adhered to the terms and conditions of the deal and when that happens then the money and the goods are released to the parties. This makes trading on EBay completely safe. EBay also works in partnership with their financial company called PayPal and it insists that one sign up there before transacting business there. PayPal is extremely security conscious and has won numerous awards because of this.
Craigslist is also another place where you can look for hand-woven wicker baskets. Craigslist is not really an auction site but is a site where local people trade with each other locally. When buying on Craigslist, it is advisable that you deal locally wityh someone in your city so that you can arrange to see the product and inspect it before committing your money.
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