Hand-woven Innipooh baskets are going to brighten up many a lane, street, byway or highway!
Exhibitor Profile: Innipooh
The baskets are the idea of British decorative artist designer Trudi Edmunds who has linked up with a hand weaver in India to create a Fair Trade business.
They come in a range of sizes to fit on children’s bikes, trikes, micro scooters and adult bikes alike, from stock in various colours and a bespoke personalised service is also available – so you can have a basket to match your bike or outfit!
Expertly woven by hand basket weaver Parvathi in India they are sent to Trudi for finishing and embellishment. From living in a one room shack when she first met Trudi Parvathi now has a house with sleeping and living areas as well as a kitchen, washroom and toilet and she is able to send her three children to school on a regular basis.
Trudi from Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk founded her business back in 2004 by accident after meeting expert basket weaver Parvathi Manivasagam whilst on holiday in India, not speaking each others languages proved difficult at first, but was overcome with Trudi’s gesticulations and drawing her designs onto paper.
Since then Trudi has been back and forth to India and has made ordering stock from Parvathi much easier by introducing colour, product and style charts. Having started out with the original ‘Mitzi’ range of bags in three sizes with plastic handles Trudi now makes a myriad of bags in different styles with added embellishments - from drawstring covers for security to ribbons, flowers and bows etc for decoration, as well as bins, trays and storage containers with lids and handles.
Each year a new product is designed, tried and tested and three years ago Innipooh bags were greatly improved when Trudi decided to attach leather handles (cut and embossed in Northampton) making the bags even harder wearing. Trudi then began working on an idea for bicycle baskets, from early naïve sketches to months of research, development and product testing came the launch of Innipooh Bicycle Baskets in the Autumn of 2010 the range for children and adults are available in a plethora of colours and five basic sizes, the smallest (Tiny) attachable to handlebars by Velcro® - mini and small by leather strap & buckle fastenings, medium and large needing more support come with a plastic coated mild steel frame which fits securely over your handlebars.
As usual when testing a new product Trudi realises how the design could be improved – simply by combining her original bag design with the bike basket, Trudi came up with the ‘Stroodle’ - an Innipooh Bicycle Basket Bag.
Read the full story behind Innipooh baskets in Bike Culture
Visit this exhibitor's website: http://www.innipooh.com/
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