From Julie February 10, 2009
From Julie & Janet:
Lately we've been noticing kuba cloth used in unexpected places, such as the chic salon in Paris by Pierre Yovanovich (shown below) and the bedrooms in today's House Call: Whitecross Farm. Also known as rafia cloth, kuba cloth is made from the leaf of the rafia tree. The Kuba artisans of the Congo hand cut, dye (using mud, indigo, or substances from the camwood tree), and then weave the strips of leaf to make the fabric. No two pieces are the same.
Above: Kuba Cloth Pillows; $199 each at Pfeiffer Studios.
Above: Wool Felt Mat inspired by Kuba Cloth designs from New Zealand Studio Stansborough Fibers; $249 at Pfeiffer Studios.
Above: An assortment of Kuba Cloth pieces is available at African Imports. The 78-by-20-inch pieces can be hung on your wall or used across your bed; $198 each.
Above: The excellent blog Fibercopia features a source for Kuba pillows: Haba Na Haba, which offers a huge selection of handmade pillow covers made from natural-dyed, hand-woven raffia adored with flat-weave appliques. All sales benefit at-risk youth in Tanzania; prices range from $74.95 to $85.95.
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Mudcloth and Kuba cloth are not the same. Traditional mudcloth, which originates from Mali (west Africa), is made from plain white cotton strips that are sewn together. After preshrinking, the cloth is decorated by a painstaking process using layers of dyes made from mud and leaves, and eventually bleached in the sun. Cloth from the Kuba Kingdom (Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa) is made from raffia fiber. The base cloth is similar to linen. It is decorated with dye and then embellished using applique, piecing or embroidery. In both societies, men and women collaborate to make these beautiful textiles.
Hello, I am a textile design professor teaching at the Art Institute of Hollywood in California. I was interested in teaching my students how to make kuba fabrics from scratch. Is there any special instructions on how to create our own kuba fabrics? Please advise. Thank you. Elaheh Borna
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