I got an email from Ananse Village today alerting me to their collection of African textiles. I’m fascinated by the pattern of this Ghana wax print – along with some others on their site. (What’s the inspiration behind the trio of hands, or are they pairs of hands praying?) This also reminds me of an earlier posting (mystery still unsolved) of a fabric owned by a dear friend.
There are several wax print designs depicting hands, but I haven’t discovered the local names for any of them. The most intriguing is the one that has a hand with holes (?) and severed fingers next to it (!!): http://arte.stile.it/gallerie/galleria.php?galid=183440&mypic=3
This one with hands that come out of clouds is probably my favorite:
http://aervilhacorderosa.com/blog/2006/08/maos.html
I’ve been posting about african textiles for a few years now. My blog is in Portuguese but in case you’re curious the google translation works well enough to get the idea of the posts:
http://www.aervilhacorderosa.com/blog/crafts/tecidos_africanos/
Congratulations on your weblog. I found it through True Up and have been visiting often.
(By the way, I also sell african wax prints, but feel free to delete this from my comment if you want: http://rosapomar.bigcartel.com/category/african-fabrics )
Thank you for turning me on to Ananse. I live in New York, and even here in the city we like to call the capital of the world, I’ve had a difficult time finding wax prints. World of Interiors magazine published a great article about the history of wax prints a few years back. Some of the most stunning prints of this kind are now manufactured by a Dutch company called Vlisco (Wax prints were originally made in the Netherlands). Check out their site: http://www.vlisco.com/home
Cristina
[…] For more actual wax prints visit previous posts on Vlisco and Ananse Village. […]