Motif Design
Primary 4 · Creative Arts
Motif Design
Lesson 3 of 4
16 min
Let's begin
Mutesi's family is cooking cassava. She picks up a piece that has just been cut, dips the flat end in a little red paint, and presses it on paper. A neat red shape appears. She presses again. Another one!
"I have made a printing machine," she laughs. She has made a stamp.
Stamping is a way of printing. You put colour on a shape that stands up, called a stamp, then press it onto a surface. Every press makes a copy of the motif. This makes stamping a quick way to repeat a motif and build a pattern.
Use poster paint, or make your own: mix charcoal powder, red soil or turmeric with a little water and a spoon of cooked porridge. Pour a little onto a folded cloth. This is your ink pad.
Remember: a stamp prints a mirror image. If you carve the letter R, it prints backwards. Carve letters the wrong way round so they print the right way!
In Ghana, adinkra cloth is printed with stamps carved from pieces of calabash. The ink is a natural dye made from tree bark.
Tip
Ink, test, press, lift
Press straight down and lift straight up. If you slide, the print smudges.
Try each one first, then tap Show answer to check.
On a potato stamp, which part prints: the raised part or the part you cut away?
Answer: The raised part.
Name two things from home that you can use as a stamp without carving.
Answer: Any two of: a bottle top, a leaf, the end of a banana stem, a cut pepper or okra, your thumb.
Keza's prints are smudged. What is she probably doing wrong?
Answer: Sliding the stamp. She should press straight down and lift straight up.
Habimana carves the letter N the normal way round. How will it print?
Answer: Backwards, as a mirror image.
Make it: Carve a stamp with your own motif. Print it in a half-drop pattern on paper or an old piece of cloth.
What you learned today
Sources and credits
The rest of the lesson, the diagrams and the exercises (Try it yourself and the practice questions) are written by Ganzaa.
Quick check
Mutesi carves a cassava stamp. Which part prints?
