Between constantly drooling over those Pilar pieces, and doing a loads of research on Pan-African art forms, I've been happily stuck in an Afro-print wonderland, these days!
And thus, I thought I'd let you in on the goodness, by showing you this absolutely gorgeous print I found. It's a swatch from a Kanga; in case you're wondering, I'm not going on about the Brit cap brand, here.
Kangas are basically lengths of brightly coloured, wax-bonded cottons that are used by African women as beautiful wrap skirts and such.
But note: These simplistic, patterned textiles are not of the kitschy, 'Kente cloth' ilk; Kangas are at once decidedly tribal and traditional, and also extremely contemporary-cool.
To really up the cool factor, do something a tad different with it. Buy a yard or two, cut out a large square or rectangle shape and mount it on your wall, in an ornate, Louis XIV-esque frame.
For the cost of the material and the frame, you'd have gotten a high-art caliber piece on a relative dime!
LMN Harris
NB image courtesy Middlesex Textiles.
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