Pre-orders, 3 good reasons why they’re worth waiting for

There’s an African proverb, ‘Patience is the key which solves all problems’ and you may have noticed that our beautiful baskets are increasingly on pre-order but there are important reasons why this matters - to you, to Artisanne and our weavers. In essence these are: bespoke weaving, reducing environmental impact and ensuring our weavers’ financial security.

Pre-ordering means that the order you place will ensure a basket is lovingly handwoven especially for you. The weaving process is both skilful and labour intensive, for example an extra large Alibaba basket takes up to a week to create and a large Alibaba or round laundry basket take 3 to 4 days to weave.  When a basket is pre-ordered by you, it’s woven in time for the next shipment and there can be a wait of up to 2 months, but we believe it truly is worth the wait and so do our customers:

“I took collection today of the Extra Large Alibaba laundry basket, natural colour. It’s such a simple and beautiful design and fits perfectly in a hallway corner. It was worth the wait.” (Kerala)

Moving to this slow retail model also minimises the environmental impact and allows us to be more accurate about the quantities required for each shipment so each container is full as it makes its long journey from Senegal.

This in turn enables us to accurately schedule the weavers’ work and anticipate busy times of the year so they are continuously employed. It also allows us to confidently increase the number of weavers we work with, providing more security for them and their community.

We all appreciate the quality of bespoke items and most of our customers consider it the ultimate luxury to have something created especially for them with authentic origins that’s designed to last for years. However we do appreciate that sometimes you do need things quickly which is why, wherever possible, we try to ensure that we have a good selection of products in stock in the UK.