Journey of a Basket Gallery

A bounty of baskets at the market Once the baskets are woven, a process which takes days to complete, the weavers bring them to the local market. We are at every market, where we are always on the lookout for the highest-quality baskets, and we procure them from the many weaving cooperatives as well. We pay top-dollar for our baskets, both to give the most financial support to the weavers, but also to ensure that the quality is always the best possible. After buying them, we bring them back to our warehouse space, which is nearby in Bolgatanga.

Baskets piled up high post-market Nothing is easy in Africa, and transport is no exception. Getting our haul of baskets from the market to our warehouse involves using whatever means of transport we have available, including motorcycle trucks, donkey carts, and hand-pushed carts. It’s a sight to behold, as the baskets are piled several feet high onto the backs of these trucks and carts, embarking on the first phase of their long journey.

A tried-and-true means of transport Donkey carts, like the one pictured here, are a more traditional mode of transport, but are still very effective. Herding and farming are a fundamental part of life in Bolga, so animals are common throughout the villages, and they play an important role in both work and sustenance.

Motorcycle truck loaded up and ready This was an especially successful market and we bought over 1,500 of the highest-quality baskets in only about 3 hours. The Bolga market experience is one of never-ending activity, with goods of all types changing hands, and it is the core of their local economy. It took about 20 of these motorcycle trucks, pictured here, to transport all of the baskets.

Storage of baskets at our Bolga warehouse Our warehouse in Bolgatanga is the point of convergence for everything that we do basket-wise. It is a storage place, most importantly, but it is also where all aspects of our business merge.

Paul and Steve Paul Akurugu, our longtime partner in the region, manages the warehouse space with aplomb, overseeing the constant coming and going of thousands of baskets. Steve, the owner and founder, works very closely with Paul, both from afar and on his trips to Africa, and their friendship runs deep. As seen here, Paul and Steve are having a business meeting, Bolgatanga style!

Baskets upon baskets upon baskets Every square inch of available space within our Bolga warehouse is packed year-round with market baskets. The flow of baskets coming in is continual, and we buy all sizes and styles when they are available, so it is an impressive logistical feat to keep it all organized.

Storage containers provide extra space Some markets are more plentiful than others, a natural part of the annual rhythm of basket-making, as there are high and low seasons. During the busiest markets, we utilize storage containers, as shown here, to safely store the thousands of baskets that we purchase from the weavers.

Leatherworkers attaching handles After buying the baskets and getting them back to our warehouse, we work with a crew of about 20 leather workers who fashion the handles for our baskets. The handles provide comfort, durability, and style. We buy the finest-quality leather in the region, and after it is tanned, colored, and dried, the leather workers meticulously craft a handle for each basket.

Sacking up finished baskets When the leather workers have finished adding the handles, a work of art in itself, we do another quality-check (one of many along the way), and then the sackers take over. The sackers work in teams of three, as shown here, and it is an incredible feat, as they are able to squeeze more baskets than you’d ever imagine into each sack. The work is very strenuous and is done after dark, whenever possible, when the temperature is cooler. But during our high season, when baskets are flowing non-stop, the sacking happens all day long. To watch the sackers at work, see Sacking baskets together in our video gallery.

Loading up baskets before they depart After the baskets are all sacked up, labeled, and organized, we load them into a cargo truck or container heading south to the port. As the baskets leave Bolgatanga, their international trek begins. Every few days trucks make their way from the northern reaches of Ghana down to the capital, Accra, and we load them up with as many sacks of baskets as we can. Bolgatanga is on the main international shipping route heading south out of the Sahara Desert, so we flag down southbound empty trucks and bargain with the drivers to transport our baskets. Their trip to Accra takes about 20 hours if there are no issues, but usually they break down or get stopped along the way, in which case it takes them 1-2 days. Our crew in Accra meets the trucks near the harbor and they help to offload the hundreds of sacks and reload them into our shipping containers.

Selecting a shipping container at the port Near the harbor, which is bustling with international freight arriving and departing, our crew selects a quality container.

Inspecting the shipping container One of our crew members walks the length of the shipping container, which is 40 feet long and cavernous before we load it. They carefully inspect the integrity of the container to make sure that there are no holes that can allow rain or seawater to get in and damage the baskets.

The loading of baskets commences At this point, the loading begins! It’s all very methodical and organized, honed expertly over the years by our crew in Accra. They select the right sacks and begin stacking them, a steady and careful process. We also note every sack as it is loaded into the container to verify that the numbers are accurate.

Carefully stacking inside the container Our loading crew, pictured here, is pushing sacks out of the way so that another sack can fit into that specific row. Because we have so many styles and types of baskets, the size of the different sacks varies, so the loaders have to be attentive and maximize the space used in every row. This in turn allows us to fit the most possible sacks in every shipment, which reduces the overall shipping cost per basket.

Fitting the sacks row by row Here they found a thinner sack, which can wedge perfectly into the uppermost row. On many of our shipments, we also transport handmade musical instruments from Ghana, like talking drums, as shown here in this sack.

Mark and Rasta head our loading team Mark, seen here perched atop a row of baskets, is our shipment-loader extraordinaire. It really is astonishing how he is able to get so many sacks of baskets to fit so well into every container, envisioning each row as they work and utilizing every inch of available space. Rasta, seen on the left, has worked with Mark for many years and they are an unstoppable team.

Our container leaving Africa and heading Stateside Once the container is fully-packed and Ghana Customs signs off, it is loaded onto a massive shipping vessel by cranes and forklifts. The ships leaving the port of Accra have hundreds, if not thousands, of different containers on board, ours being one of them. The container changes ships in Europe, and after that it heads west across the Atlantic, the entire trip taking about 65 days. When the vessel reaches the US shore, it docks at the Port of Houston, where we clear US Customs and the Department of Agriculture. Once all shipping charges are finalized and paid, it moves onto a train, which takes another week to arrive in Colorado.

Our warehouse awaits the arrival of baskets After the container arrives in Denver, we hire a local trucking company to transport it to our warehouse, pictured here, in Nederland, CO. Steve, the owner and founder, spent years planning and building this state-of-the-art warehouse in the foothills outside of Boulder. Both for him and his employees, it’s a dream come true to live and work in the mountains. Container arrival day is always exciting, with all hands on deck, as we unload it sack by sack, row by row, and organize the baskets by style and size as we fill the warehouse space.

Quality control is of highest priority Our warehouse crew then begins quality control and affixing the proper hang tag to each basket. As part of this process, we carefully inspect every basket as it passes through our hands, admiring the artisanship as we go.

Choosing baskets for orders and packing them up Once the baskets all have their proper tags and pass quality control, we move them into a central shipping area, where our shippers pick the proper baskets for every order. We make sure to emphasize selecting a variety of colors and weaving patterns for each order, and then our shippers masterfully fit the baskets into our shipping boxes.

Boxes of baskets ready to ship out When each order is packed, completed, and ready to ship, we load the boxes onto pallets and move them to our loading dock, where they await pickup. We ship FedEx Ground, and a truck comes every afternoon to take our boxes and deliver them to our customers throughout the US and Canada.

Baskets arrive at stores ready to be shaped and displayed Finally, after a long and circuitous trip out of Africa, over the sea, along the rails, and across the land, our baskets arrive at your store. Our customers then display the baskets in a multitude of ways, highlighting their beauty, and for wonderful examples of this, see our Store Displays photo gallery.

Every basket has a story to tell From the faraway villages of Ghana to your cozy living room, each basket tells a remarkable story, with many intriguing chapters along the way...