Handmade Hemp Tote Bag - Nepal Yaks

A natural canvas tote printed with six yaks walking in a row, the word yak written under each one in a loose hand, and NEPAL set in heavy block letters beneath them. The print is black on the undyed cloth, with long handles cut to sit on the shoulder. The yak is the animal that makes life above three thousand metres possible. It carries the loads on the trails to Everest, gives the milk that becomes churpi and the butter that goes into salt tea, and its hair is spun into rope and woven into the blankets and tents that Himalayan herders live under. A Nepali child learns to draw one before they learn to draw a cow. Six of them in a line, each one labelled, is the joke and the affection both: this is the animal, and there is no substitute for it. The cloth is the fibre in its own colour with no bleach, so the pale ground carries the flecks and the slight unevenness that come with a natural weave. Because the bags are cut, sewn and printed by hand, the exact placement of the print and the depth of the natural colour vary a little from one to the next. Yours will not be identical to the photograph, and that is the point. Ships worldwide from our Vancouver store with live carrier rates at checkout.

Every piece is worked individually, so colour, thickness and finish vary a little from one to the next. That variation is a feature of the craft, not a flaw.