Decorating with Fibres and Colour

1Not only clay: many ways to decorate an object

You have decorated clay by pressing, cutting, adding, piercing and shining. Artists decorate other objects too, using whatever materials are close to hand.

• Weaving and coiling with coloured fibres, as in the agaseke basket.
• Wrapping a bottle, a tin or a stick with coloured sisal, banana fibre or wool.
• Painting with natural colours: kaolin white, red soil, charcoal black.
• Relief patterns raised from the surface, as in imigongo.
• Threading seeds, beads or rolled paper beads into patterns.

2The agaseke

The agaseke (plural uduseke) is a traditional Rwandan basket with a flat round base, a body taller than it is wide, and a pointed lid that fits on top. It is made from natural fibres, and its patterns are made with fibres coloured by natural dyes.

An agaseke is often given as a present, for example at a wedding or when visiting family, so it is a sign of peace and goodwill. You can even find one on Rwanda's national emblem.

3How coiled baskets are built

1. Bundle: gather a thin bundle of dry grass, or strips of dried banana fibre.
2. Wrap: wind sisal thread tightly round the bundle so no fibre shows.
3. Coil and stitch: curl the wrapped bundle into a tight spiral. Every few wraps, pass the thread round the round before, to stitch the coils together.
4. Pattern: to make a pattern, change to a thread of a different colour for a few stitches, then change back. Placing the colour in the same spot on each round builds a shape, such as a triangle or a zigzag.

4Make it: a wrapped pencil pot

1. Clean an empty tin or the bottom half of a plastic bottle. Ask an adult to cover any sharp edge with tape.
2. Spread a little glue (or thick cassava porridge) round the bottom of the pot.
3. Wind natural sisal or banana fibre round and round, pressing each round close to the last.
4. Every few rounds, change to a dyed or darker fibre to make stripes. Plan your stripes like a motif pattern: for example two light, one dark.
5. Tuck in the end and glue it. Add a band of seeds or bottle-top rings if you like.

5Look closely

• Find the rounds of the coil, one on top of another, from the base to the tip of the lid.
• The black pattern is a motif repeated round the basket. Describe its shape.
• Why do you think the lid is plain white while the body has the pattern?

Try it yourself

Try each one first, then tap Show answer to check.