Kente Cloth

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Kente Cloth
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Kente is an Asante ceremonial cloth hand-woven on
a horizontal treadle loom. Strips measuring
about 4 inches wide are sewn together into larger
pieces of cloths. Cloths come in various
colors, sizes and designs and are worn during
very important social and religious occasions.
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The term kente has its roots in the word kenten
which means basket.
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In a total cultural context, kente is more
important than just a cloth. It is a visual
representation of history, philosophy,
ethics,oral literature, moral values, social code
of conduct, religious beliefs, political thought
and aesthetic principles.
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Kente cloth is an example of using stripes in
weaving to create spectacular designs!
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The cloths woven in the nineteenth century for
the court of the Asantehene, the king of the
Asante empire in the country of Ghana were
probably the ultimate achievement of the West
African narrow-strip weavers art.
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Members of the Ashanti tribe wearing their robes
of...
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The raw material came from Europe in the form of
silk fabrics which were carefully unpicked to
obtain thread which could then be re-woven into
narrow-strip cloth .
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Kente Cloth Weaver
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an Ashanti horizontal loom
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This is an Asante weaver weaving on a double
-heddle narrow strip loom in the royal weavers
village of Bonwire near the Asante capital of
Kumasi. Strips are only 4 to 6 inches wide. The
photo was taken in 1997.
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ASANTE or ASHANTI The name of the tribe whose
weavers create the cloth KENTE The cloth woven
in narrow strips which means basket GHANA The
country in West Africa where Kente cloth weavers
live
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KENTE CLOTH !!
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GOLDEN MEAN A mathemetician named Fibonacci from
the 1200s recognized that there is a repeating
number pattern found in nature - in the human
body - in flowers - in shells, etc. This
pattern is
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1 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 8 - 13 - 21 - 34 What is
the repeating pattern??? We can use this tool
to design our stripe pattern!
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KENTE CLOTH !!!
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Component Grading for Woven Amulet
my color scheme is? (2points)
my stripe
pattern is? (2points)
my number sequence
is? (2 points)
total possible 1. Interesting
varied stripe pattern 20
inspired by Kente weavers Fibonacci type
of stripe pattern 2. Effective use of
color 15 color scheme to
create unified effect 3. Interesting creative
embellishment 15 (must have a cord
closure) 4. Technique (ie no knots,
weft-faced, etc) 25 5. Overall
Appearance 19 100