Introducing : The Basket Room & Selwyn House

The Basket Room and Selwyn House have been two favourites in the handworked shop for some time. With craftsmanship at the heart of what they do and with these recent additions to our online shop, we thought this would be a fitting time to introduce you to this inspiring organisation and these talented makers.

The Basket Room

The Basket Room was founded by Camilla Sutton and Holly McMullen in 2014. Their previous joint experiences, and disillusionment, with the design, production, fashion and retail industries, inspired them to form an ethical brand with a sustainable message at the core. However, it is the weavers of Eswatini, Kenya, Ghana, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe, which are the true spirit of the company and the talent behind every fair trade basket.

Every woven basket has been worked on exclusively by one weaver resulting in a basket which is their own work of art. Woven meticulously over a number of days, the basket will have accompanied its creator on their daily errands from home, to field and to farm. This enables the weavers to earn a precious second income whilst maintaining their other jobs and responsibilities.

The Basket Room has searched far and wide to partner up with the most remarkable artisans and networks of weaving cooperatives in Africa. They are proud and privileged to regularly spend time with them all, getting to know the people, the raw materials and the harvesting, dyeing and weaving processes, first-hand.

Selwyn House

Formed by Sean Best and Ellie Smalls in 2017, Selwyn House produce modern wooden tablewares from British grown timbers.

Sean is a self taught woodturner and has an all consuming obsession for understanding and working with wood.

Each Selwyn House piece is made and finished by hand in their Northamptonshire workshop, using wood from small independent sawmills who manage the woodland around them, or sourced directly from local tree surgeons. Working in small batches enables them to use more unusual pieces of timber and to make the most of the wood.

Selwyn is an old Anglo-Saxon word roughly translated as 'friend in the house', which feels like a fitting sentiment when it comes to their pieces.