Swahili Imports –

InStyle magazine did a little product write up on these African baskets in their July 2008 issue. Sold through swahili-imports, they’re good looking, functional and fair-trade friendly.

Textiles in the News –

This photograph in the 6/15/08 edition of the New York Times magazine struck me immediately with its strong textile content. (Accompanying article is “The Man for A New Sedan”; photo caption reads “A camp for members of the Dinka tribe outsie the town of Abyei, Sudan; photographer is J. Carrier.) The seamlessness of the colors between the woman, the background (partially cropped here) and the fabric makes it look almost staged (not that it was – ) but more than that I’m curious about the fabric itself. It doesn’t look “traditionally” African to me (an extremely broad category of course) and looks like it’s been produced for sale by the yard. Who designs fabrics like this and how do they end up in African markets? Are they made in China and then imported, or are they made on the continent? I’d love to trace a fabric like this from design conception to its final customer…

On a different note, the pattern and coloration make me think of paintings by Cezanne — particularly some of his depictions of faraway landscapes and fields. I didn’t find what I had in mind online but did see this painting by the artist (also cropped) on the Metropolitan Museum website. The nearly identical color palette makes for an interesting visual comparison, not to mention the juxtaposition between the implied material poverty of the woman and the bounty of Cezanne’s still life.

Textiles in the News –

The above image by Jason Reed of Reuters showing President Bush meeting tribal leaders in Ghana on Wednesday is a perfect addition to my occasional look at “textiles in the news”. I pulled out Josh Gillow’s African Textiles book this evening to see what it is the man and woman closest to Bush are wearing. From this I can be fairly certain it’s an Ewe adanudo cloth. Both the Ewe and Ashanti peoples are located in Ghana and their textiles, the adanudo and kente respectively, are quite similar. Gillow describes the adanudo as having “weft float motifs” and the kente as a “strip woven” cloth. I found the image of an adanudo (below top) on the Hamill Gallery website.

Tribal & Textile Arts Show, Part I -

San Francisco’s annual Tribal & Textile Arts Show was held this weekend. As in previous years it offered a visual feast of wildly different textiles (and other objects of all kinds). This evening I’ve been perusing the websites of the stalls represented and will be exploring them further in the next few days. For now, here’s one striking textile shown on Gail Martin Gallery’s website. It’s described as a “Section from a Ceremonial Dance Skirt” from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kuba People, 20th century. It’s made of resist dyed raffia and is 22″ x 29″.

Si Je Savais –

I spent the three day weekend several hours north visiting friends in the beautiful coastal redwoods area north of Eureka California. My friend and host collected this fabric in her travels to Sierra Leone a few years ago and it now serves as kitchen curtains. All my own French lessons have escaped me but I’m told “Si Je Savais” means something like “had I only known”. The other phrase, “Se My Siso” is a mystery but is probably from a local dialect. It’s clearly a contemporary fabric (she bought it by the yard in a market) so I wonder if it’s possibly an example of anti HIV/Aids propaganda? Maybe the woman is grieving new knowledge of her own status? In graphic terms I love that the design of her skirt is also the design of the background cloth surrounding each medallion. Mostly though I’m intrigued by what the text of the fabric actually means and who it’s intended for. If it is about HIV did the manufacturers expect the cloth to be purchased and used decoratively?

Kuba Pillows –

I was looking at Interior Design magazine’s October 2007 “Market Tabloid” this afternoon and found some exciting new sources in the section devoted to fabrics. Among the companies listed was Haba Na Haba, an organization dedicated to helping AIDS-affected youth in Tanzania through the promotion of local textile production and artistry. The site sells one-of-a-kind kuba cloth pillows, two of which are pictured above. I’m also including an image I came across earlier this summer on the blog Materialicious. It’s originally from a feature done by Elana Franklin for New York magazine about designer Scott Newkirk’s forest retreat. I love the spare, rustic-yet-contemporary look of this room — and the kuba pillows on the beds!