African Textile Design

1. African Textile Design

2. What do these three people have in common? They are all wearing items made of or decorated with patterns from an African fabric called Kente cloth. Originally handwoven and made only for royalty it is only one of hundreds of fabric design by African artists.

3. Africa is made up of 53 countries and is more than 3 times the size of the U.S. The population is 3 times larger than that of the U.S. Such a huge area of land has a wide range of extreme climates ….. From hot dry deserts to steaming jungles, grassy plains and snow covered mountains.

4. In addition to Kente cloth such as this one which is based on a checkerboard pattern, other types of cloth were made using methods such as tie-dying, spattering the cloth with dye or coloring the fabric with river mud .

5. Record-holding Kenyan marathon runner Tegla Loroupe uses a colorful repeat-patterned kanga to carry her nephew. Repetition is an important element in South African textile design.

6. This modern day mud cloth artist is reversing the tradition by creating black lines on a white background.

7. While Kente cloth has come to represent African fabric in the eyes of the world, other African designs are becoming almost as well known. The distinctive blue and white patterns of Nigerian Adire (ah-Deer-a) cloth are beginning to be featured worldwide by clothing designers.

8. Nigerian Adire cloth using a blue dye and starch paste.

9. A squared grid was used to create the geometric Adire patterns. Organic, free form shapes as well as thick and thin, straight and wavy lines and dotted patterns were also used in these two designs.

10. Today when West Africans wear an Adire cloth garment, the fabric is generally machine made.

11. Handmade Adire cloth is dipped in a dark blue indigo dye after the design is painted on with a starch paste.

12. Simplified shapes and symbols of organic and natural forms create this African textile.

13. Student examples of African Adire Patterns.