African Textiles

In March our school is having an artist in Residence who will be teaching us about African Drumming which inspired us to create artwork about African Textiles.  First grade students learned about Kente Cloth.  We watched a video of an African boy weaving and looked at lots of pictures of the woven cloth.  Students created their strips and decorated them using different types of lines and then wove them into a black piece of paper.  I saw a version of this lesson on Artsonia.  Here is the link: http://www.artsonia.com/museum/art.asp?id=15678256&exhibit=447434&gallery=y
Second grade students created printed patterns inspired by African Mudcloth.  I found this great site that explains the process of making the cloth: http://www.mnh.si.edu/africanvoices/mudcloth/index_flash.html
We used cardboard and white paint to print the patterns and oil pastels to add some color.  Here is a little video of a student working on their pattern.  I used the imotion HD app on the ipad to make it.

Fourth grade students looked at Adinkra cloth.  We watched a few youtube videos of the cloth being stamped as well as some photographs of the cloth and stamps.  I printed a sheet of the Adinkra symbols and their meanings for my students to use.  Each student chose a piece of cloth (recycled from a past project) and used the symbols and sharpie to decorate their cloth.  The students will wear these when they are doing their drumming.