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Clear as mud!
August 7, 2019
Fast emerging as one of the hottest trends for 2019, mudcloth is an African design staple and one of our absolute favourite fabrics here at Darkie Designs. With a fascinating history and a variety of traditional meanings, mudcloth is about as intrinsically African as you can get. Every piece has a story to tell, with its symbols and the way they are arranged revealing a myriad things, from social status, a person's occupation and the history of a village literally woven into the design.
Sometimes a piece of mudcloth portrays a traditional African proverb or legend or contains the history of entire communities. Hand-woven by men into narrow strips of fabric, the mudcloth is then pieced together into larger pieces of cloth that's then often dyed by women.
It's dyed in a bath of mashed and boiled leaves and branches of trees before being sun-dried. Then patterns are painted on it with special mud collected from water sources and left to ferment over time. As the mud dries on the cloth it changes colour, and excess mud is washed off. It's a process that's repeated over and over until the painted areas of the cloth become the required shade and hue. Yellow areas are painted with a bleaching substance that then turns them brown.
When finished, the cloth is left to dry in the sun for a week or so, whereafter the bleach solution is washed off with water. What remains is the tell-tale white patterning on a dark brown or black background.
The symbols used in the patterning has different meanings. One that looks a little like a clover leaf is meant to represent the flower of the calabash tree. Another that looks like two combs facing one another represents the bones of a snake and is a symbol of bravery. Dots within circles represent family and community. An "X" like cross is supposed to resemble the pillows of wealthy women and is considered a sign of luxury and wealth. Other symbols represent beds of bamboo and millet leaves; a "brave man's' belt"; a spindle and an iguana's elbow!
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Back in March of 2020, Bianca and Jana were dusting off their Fez’s and grabbing the pashminas out of storage in preparation to Rock the Casbah! However, as we all know and vividly remember - with March, came the eventual Covid shutdown, and instead of frolicking down the Moroccan streets, we all shut ourselves inside and watched the days tick by… 3 Years later, and now we can finally say - with conviction - that they’re going to Morocco at the start of September! This blog, filled with excitement and curiosity about all the weird and wonderful curios they might find, and endless sourcing they’ll do, stays as a reminder that sometimes plans change, things go awry and there’s not much you can do about it other than persevere - and that we did! So, here’s Bianca and Jana’s innermost thoughts about the trip, 3 years before it came to fruition, enjoy :) We've got our passports out and Jana has already picked out what she's going to wear each day… Come March [September] we'll be heading north with Air France to the Kingdom of Morocco, bright eyed and bushy tailed as we make our base in the ancient city of Marrakesh (also known as Marrakech to the French, but we're not French, so we'll go with the English version until all that fuss about Brexit is sorted out) - This turned into a year long negotiations trade, and now us outsiders would pay nearly double what we used to if we visit the UK - thankfully our flight is direct!! We'll be looking for inspiration and will be investigating what's there that we could possibly bring back to The Hoed. We can't wait to experience the atmosphere and afro-arabic influences of this amazing place as we visit the celebrated souks and off-the-beaten track artists and craftsmen that make Marrakesh so special. We're desperate to see the beautifully hand-crafted furniture, textiles, fabrics, rugs, carpets, objets d'art, accessories, lighting… anything that catches our eye and could possibly be brought back south. Berber mats and rugs are definitely on our list, as are the kind of furnishings you might find in a gorgeous Bedouin tent. If you think about it, the Bedouin refined the art of "glamping" into an artform - fabulous carpets on the ground, soft, billowing fabrics hung here and there, plump cushions spread on the ground, intricate leatherwork and carved wood, patinated metal… Total Glamping vibes! We just love all of it and will be tracking as much of it down as we can. We'll also have an eye or three out for wonderful ceramics and glassware and wonderful lamps that give off soft, filtered light. For us it's about workmanship, so we'll hopefully be finding the people who make furniture and ceramics using techniques that have been passed down over countless generations meaning that everything we look at will have its own, and its own special story. Our mission is to share those stories with you and, if it's feasible, bring some of that special workmanship home to the Rainbow Nation. We're most definitely inspired and are sure this is going to be a truly special trip! Counting the sleeps till then! Less than a month to go now - we will be keeping the updates going on our social channels as well as another few blog posts to explain in detail our wild adventures - Stay tuned!
A safari theme never really runs out of viewing time and is particularly popular for interiors at the moment. The warm, earthy tones give a sense of comfort and the accessories offer the anticipation of travel and adventure.
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