Penders Grove Primary School

AFRICAN ART

LEVELS 1 TO 4

1. Nigerian Paste Resist, Grades Prep/One

Resources: Material Pleasures by Lilian Coppock; plastic bottles filled with plain flour and water paste (pancake consistency); Dual Fabric Paint; squares of polyester cotton cloth (all materials are available at Zart)

• Students were shown different examples of geometric designs found on
  
• African utensils and artworks. They identified motifs like straight lines, squares & rectangles, triangles and zigzags.
• They were asked to keep these in mind when creating their own designs, if possible.
  
• Each student was then given a square of polyester cotton taped to an old blackboard and asked to draw a design on it using the plastic bottles filled with the flour and water paste.
• The work was allowed to dry and then painted with undiluted Dual Fabric Paint.
• Most students painted with deep blue as this is the traditional colour useed in Nigeria. It is important to remove the cloths from the boards for drying or else the paint will bleed a little.
• When dry, the paste was peeled off and the work ironed to set the dye.

2. Ashante Kente Cloth - Paper Weaving, Grades Two to Five

Resources: photocopy of woven border enclosing area for weaving; markers or coloured pencils; coloured cover paper.

• Students were taught about the history, design and creation process of Kente cloth.
• They learnt about weft and warp and wove their own
  creations into the provided photocopy.
• Students chose either 'earth' colours or colours we found in our Kente cloth examples. Borders were coloured in with pencils or markers.
  

Copyright 2004 Zart Art & Zart Education Service