Decorative accessories and Rwandan crafts

1Why this matters

Two rooms can have the same walls and the same furniture and still look completely different. The difference is in the finishing touches: the cushions, the pictures, the basket on the shelf, the flowers on the table. These are decorative accessories, and they are the cheapest and easiest part of a room to change.

Rwanda has a rich tradition of home accessories: imigongo panels, agaseke baskets, woven mats, clay pots and kitenge. In this lesson you will learn the types of accessories, where two Rwandan crafts come from, and the principles for arranging accessories well.

2Types of decorative accessories

An accessory is a small, movable item that adds colour, pattern, texture or personality to a room. Accessories fall into two groups:

• Functional and decorative: they do a job and also look good, such as cushions, curtains, table cloths, mats, lamps, mirrors, clocks and storage baskets.
• Purely decorative: their main job is to be looked at, such as pictures, wall hangings, imigongo panels, ornaments and vases of flowers.

3Imigongo

Imigongo is a Rwandan art form, traditionally made by women. Cow dung is mixed with ash, which kills bacteria and removes the smell, and the mixture is moulded by hand into raised geometric patterns (zigzags, spirals, diamonds and bands) on a flat board or wall. When it has hardened it is painted. The traditional colours, made from natural materials, are black, white and red, with grey and beige-yellow; some modern artists add other colours.

Imigongo comes from the east of Rwanda, where it decorated the inside walls of houses in the old Kibungo area. One legend credits its invention to Prince Kakira of the Gisaka kingdom. The skill almost disappeared after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. A women's cooperative near Kirehe, in the Eastern Province, revived it, and today imigongo panels, plates and boxes are sold in craft shops across the country.

4Kitenge in the home

A kitenge is a length of brightly coloured, patterned cotton cloth worn across East, Central and West Africa, including Rwanda. It is printed by an industrial version of batik, called wax printing, so the pattern is almost as bright on the back as on the front. Kitenge is best known for clothes, but it is also used in the home: tied or laid on tables as decoration, framed or hung on the wall like a picture, and sewn into cushion covers, curtains and bags. Markets such as Kimironko in Kigali sell kitenge by the piece, and tailors working in the market sew it to order.

5Principles for arranging accessories

• Focal point (emphasis): one item the eye goes to first, such as an imigongo panel on the wall facing the door. Do not let several large items compete with it.
• Balance: symmetrical balance places matching items on either side of a centre line (formal); asymmetrical balance uses different items of equal visual weight (relaxed).
• Proportion: the size of an accessory should suit its space. A tiny picture on a large wall looks lost.
• Rhythm: repeat an accent colour or shape in two or three places to lead the eye round the room.
• Harmony: all the accessories should belong to the same colour scheme or theme.
• Grouping: small items look best in groups of three, at different heights.
• Less is more: too many items become clutter, and every ornament is one more thing to dust.

Worked example: finishing a sitting room

Niyonzima's family sitting room has cream walls, brown wooden chairs and a plain table. They have a small budget.

Step 1: choose a focal point. One imigongo panel in black, white and red, hung on the wall facing the door with its centre at about eye level.

Step 2: use rhythm. Repeat the red of the panel twice more: red kitenge cushions on two chairs and a red-patterned table runner.

Step 3: balance the shelf. An agaseke basket on one side, and on the other a group of three clay pots of different heights. The two sides are different but of similar visual weight: asymmetrical balance.

Step 4: add function. A mirror on the wall beside the window reflects daylight into the room.

Step 5: check. Every item is either useful or part of the black-white-red theme, nothing on the floor can trip anyone, and there are few surfaces to dust.

Practice

Solution. Curtains and a table lamp are functional and decorative: they give privacy and light. A framed picture and an imigongo plate are purely decorative.

Solution. Cow dung mixed with ash, moulded into raised patterns and then painted. Its main colours are black, white and red, with grey and beige-yellow.

Solution. On a wall where it catches the daylight from the window, for example opposite or beside it. It reflects the light back into the room, which makes the room brighter and look larger.

Solution. The shelves are cluttered: there is no focal point, the colours do not share a scheme, and there are many items to dust. The family could keep a few favourites that share a colour, arrange them in groups of three at different heights, and put the rest away or change them over from time to time.