Adinkra Pinting- Ghana and a lazy weekend mood

Bit of a lazy day again today...still lots to do, a mountain of photographs to take to put things on etsy, photograph and list some of the Pukka Finds I have for sale, work on websites, still more costings to finalise for tours, samples for some clothing lines we are working on, finishing off samples for The Stitching Project...and, and, and... but all I really want to do is daydream about gardens and planting orchards and building a house....so I am dillydallying playing with pictures and starting to build up the energy to be motivated for the next task. Praveen is in Delhi, collecting more thread, sorting out a cloth order that went sideways....Really I suppose it is just a weekend mood, but you don't really have week ends when you work for yourself so there is not the same slob time allowance....Gabriel is a lovely tounf man, carrying in the family tradition of Adrinkra Printing.
We are planning to vicit him and his family on our Glorious Ghana Tour and take a workshop there. The village also produces Asanti Kente weaving strips

Here is Praveen modelling a man's smock. In Ghana the amount of fabric you are wearing is a status symbol so the larger the garment or amount of fabric wrapped around you the better.

Gabriel in a man's toga.Printing

the Adinkra stamps are carved from Calabash or Gourd shells

Gabriel's family are some of the last people to produce the ink for printing in the traditional way, first bark is collected from special trees up toward the Sahara in the north, it is then pounded to mulch, [this bark also has many mediciinal properties- good for diarrhea, menstral cramps etc depending on how it is processed.] For ink it is pounded then boiled down to thick and syrupy

Old engine blocks make the perfect support for the potsIn our tour we will visit Gabriel, and choosing a Kente strip our our own liking prnt on then as a momneto to take home.In the modern day much 'adinkra cloth' is actually produced by sceen print and pigment inks...still lovely but loosing contact with the traditions.

loved that black and white piece so much it is now up on the wall in our office.

This is a momento strip form a special commission Gabriel wove for a Big Cheif's special order, the patterning is complex...but wouldn't the effect of a large cloth made of many of these strips been dramatic?