Customized Pandan Baskets

My caretaker's wife, Cristina weaves by hand, rustic baskets out of pandán leaves that grow in the gardens, and I've asked her to customize sizes to hold our assorted household containers. It's awesome enough that we make our own natural and biodegradable containers, but all the more it's remarkable since we simply make use of old leaves from the garden (so now, the pandans are always clean and never have dried leaves left on the shrub!).

But apart from it making your ordinary objects look better, it actually has plenty of other practical purposes. If you use the basket to hold baking dishes (below), it also serves as a tray that absorbs heat and functions like a lightweight trivet. So If any of you want to serve your Pyrex trays from oven to table with its handsomely bespoke lightweight hot mat, Cristina can easily whip up one with precise dimensions to fit them to a T.

Of course, it goes without saying that the same baskets (top, with the flatware) can be used for still so many other things and areas around the house. Below, it can be a workdesk organizer to hold a multitude of small things (that always get misplaced) or further below, a caddy to hold small towels in your powder room.

Farmer's Carry-on

On a recent trip to Indonesia, I found this bamboo and pandan leaf basket in a local market which looks very utilitarian yet attractive at the same time. In the Philippines, we have a similar native carry-all called bayóng but this shape tells me it serves something more specific than a dump-anything, earth-friendly shopping bag. On one side (below left), it is permanently taut with a rattan braid; on the other side (below right), it is open by default but has a bamboo peg and abaca twine to secure the content.

Now I don't speak Bahása but it didn't take long to understand that it's a basket for carrying chickens (admittedly, it did involve someone having to borrow someone's rooster some stalls away). What I see here in the country are mostly perforated cartons or a bayong with improvised holes. Anyway, I promptly bought one and because it is quite an unusual shape, I just carried it on with me on the plane. Such is the life of a weekend farmer; while everyone on my flight via Singapore had smart-looking carry-ons and the latest electronic gadgets, there I was lining up in the gate with a chicken basket!