Flax Kete

Spent a large part of the day processing photos from a couple of shoots I have just done, completely forgot about Blip until late this afternoon.

Had thought that the rather beautiful kete basket made by John, my second cousin and given to me after his visit last month would be a good emergency blip at some stage....well that was today.

John, who has no maori ancestry, has learnt to make these beautiful traditional baskets...I was overwhelmed when he gave me this one, I just love it and have already used it on a number of occasions.
I found a bit about them on Wikipedia..
Kete are traditional baskets made and used by New Zealand's Māori people. They may be of many sizes, but are most often found in sizes similar to large handbags. Kete are traditionally woven from the leaves of New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax, known in Māori as harakeke), with two handles at the top. Other materials are sometimes used, including the leaves of the nikau palm and cabbage tree.[1]
In pre-European society, Māori had specific plantations of flax, which was their most important textile. It was prepared by cutting the green leaves close to the base before the leaves were split and woven. Various preparations of the leaves allowed the material to be used both as a hardy flat thick-woven material (as in kete and mats) and also as a fibrous twine, used for creating both rope and finely woven cloaks.

We took John(who is an historian) and his Dad out on the lake and they were extremely interested in visiting the sites of the maori villages that were destroyed following the eruption of our mountain in 1886. At one of the sites John noticed a number of flax bushes, so he took some flax home with him, wondering if it was a regeneration of some of the original bushes that were used in the village. He was really amazed when he used it to make a kete, it was the best flax he has ever woven with, very fibrous and with no blemishes.

Sorry for the long "history" lesson, but I find it all very interesting.