British Decorative Artist - Trudi Edmunds G.C.C.I

Founded the Innipooh Basket Company in July 2004

Now in our 5th year of trading & surviving the economic down turn, we are happy to bring you this new updated website & we hope you like it!

Here is a little history of how the Innipooh Basket Company began:

Trudi gained a BTEC National Diploma in General Art & Design after 2 years study at the Ipswich School of Art – High Street Annex & the letters G.C.G.I after her name, on graduation from the City & Guilds of London Art School, with excellent tuition from Sir Roger & Lady Flavia de Grey and a plethora of professional artists, designers, craftsmen, conservators & restorers.

Trudi then worked with one of her tutors in Conservation & Restoration of Victorian Decorative Interiors and set up Millefiore Decorative Arts - Majoring in making 24ct Gold Leaf Mirrors & decorative glass panels for doors, windows and walls, which she now makes to private commission. Trudi also works in Interior Design and Styling.

Whilst studying at C&G Trudi was given a gift of one off, hand woven bag made by her friend Melanie Kirk, Trudi embellished the bag further by adding silk flowers, butterflies and a drawstring lining for security & everywhere she went with the bag, people would comment on how gorgeous it was & asked where they could buy one from!

Ten years later whilst on holiday in India, Trudi met fellow artisan Parvathi Manivasagam in Mahaballipuram, Tamil Nadu, South East India, who is an expert weaver, Trudi commissioned Parvathi to make a bag similar to hers, which Parvathi gladly did, then she made another & another and so the Innipooh Basket Company was born!

Trudi designs the products and chooses the colours & Parvathi hand weaves the basket bodies from colourful polypropylene strips, Parvathi is paid a very fair wage for her part, which helps provide her children with a decent education, keep a roof over thier heads & food on the table.

Trudi hand finishes the Innipooh products by securing the original plastic handles, adding feet & embellishments: such as leather handles, hand made & artificial flowers, ribbons etc back in her studio in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk and then exhibits the products around the UK, at various Art & Craft Fairs, wholesales to retail outlets and visits schools & clubs giving talks about this non profit making business too. See the P&P Plus other stuff page for more information on Trudi's talks.