First thing many people notice when looking at handmade rattan is no two pieces ever look quite the same.
A weave might be a bit tighter on one basket than the other. The tone of the rattan might seem warmer or cooler or more textured depending on the natural material. One piece might possess a slight curve that isn't apparent on another. Although most times they are infinitesimally small the differences are still very much there and give the handmade rattan its natural warmth.
Indu House has found that this not an inherent flaw; the very reason handmade pieces feel so alive inside a home is because they have that slight touch of imperfection. Because genuine handmade woven objects cannot ever truly be completely uniform. And perhaps should never try to be.
The rattan itself is a natural material before it ever gets woven into a completed object. No two reeds have exactly the same tone or feel or texture depending on how and where it has been grown. The very fibres hold variability in a synthetic material because the organic material does so naturally, the lengths of rattan are never identical before weaving even begins.
The handmade factor enters into it, then, with.
Hand weaving is the culmination of both great skill and intuition. A weaver's hands use touch and tension and rhythm rather than a strict mechanical repetition. Their hands naturally make slight adjustments, tensioning the weave in some spots, easing it in others, adjusting to how the rattan bends and flexes while it is being woven.
This is the difference between hand weaving and factory production.
A factory made product, machine woven, aims for a thousand identical items. Each angle is exactly the same as the last. Each distance the same. Human-made weaving progresses more slowly. The goal isn't sterile perfection but rather balance, beauty, and durability.
The human variability is clear in the finished product.
A large part of what Indu House loves about handmade is how so much of it is produced in small villages across Indonesia where weavers use skills passed down through the generations, the hands have practiced weaving them for decades.
But what is beautiful about this process is that the maker isn't removed from the item.
You can see the hands behind the weave. You can see the variations in the fibres. You can see and feel the texture and warmth, and there is an irregularity that reminds you of a human being behind the product instead of a machine.
This is an important element to have inside the home as human-made pieces bring a certain softness to the home that a truly machine-made piece doesn't have. I find homes filled with perfectly uniform items, even though they are impeccably designed, can sometimes feel strange and even a bit cold. Handmade things bring a movement to the home that can calm.
For example, a woven basket beside the fireplace almost never distracts from what's going on in the room or even just sits with it harmoniously, but the variation in texture of that basket totally changes the feel of the room. The light hits the weave slightly differently throughout the day. The natural fibres warm over time through use.
The natural aging of handmade rattan is part of what makes it so beautiful as it evolves with you in the home. Handwoven items get darker in tone and softer to the touch through daily use, so after a few years you have a deeper, honey-coloured piece of rattan that you've warmed with your own hands.
Certainly in this world dominated by factory-made mass-production, we are conditioned to expect perfection and uniformity in the objects that we buy but natural, handmade items are an extension of the materials themselves. Variations are a reminder of the humanness in it, an aspect that simply does not exist in objects made by a machine by the thousands.
Indu House feels there is an inherent beauty in honesty.
A basket that has slightly uneven edges tells a different story than one produced by the thousand by machine. It tells the story of process and patience. It tells us that objects that are made by human hands are going to have some very slight evidence of that.
And perhaps that is part of the comfort it brings to our lives.
Perfection can seem very distant.
Human-made items feel familiar and real.