Piece no. 2 from me. Raffia is my cloth this time. Once again I'm in The Congo - but in the Kuba or Kasia region - towards the south of the country. There are a number of different types of kuba cloth. Embriodered, Applique and 'velvet' or cut pile. They are all made from raffia cloth. Raffia cloth is difficult to weave and as raffia fibre cannot be plied a woven piece of raffia can only be as large and the longest length of raffia fibre. The cut-pile cloth is the hardest to make and now the hardest to find as a new cloth.
I have combined two types of kuba cloth here - embroidered and velvet, featuring a small piece of velvet on a background of 'embroidered' cloth. To imitate the embroidery I have stitched rayon yarn onto the tea- dyed background. (Best thing to do with tea in my opinion!!)
Plain Raffia cloth was once used a currency. 3 m long embroidered and appliquéd Kuba cloths are used as dance skirts in ceremonies.
This makes a very striking piece, the contrast between the simpler background and the raised more complex inset rectangle is excellent.Never heard of raffia cloth before, so it's good to learn new things! Elaine.
ReplyDeleteElaine - if you google Kuba cloth - you'll get lots of images that will give you more of a feel for it.
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