Tien Chiu

  • Home
  • About
    • Honors, Awards, and Publications
  • Online Teaching
  • Gallery
  • Essays
  • Book
  • Blog
  • Dye samples
You are here: Home / Travels / Ghana

Ghana

Around Ghana
Around Ghana

Photos and scenery from around Ghana

28 Photos

Kente weaving in Ghana
Kente weaving in Ghana

One of the great textile arts of Africa is kente, or strip-weaving. Weavers make long, narrow (4-6") strips of fabric that are then sewn together side-by-side to make a larger piece. Kente can be used as clothing, as bedspreads, tablecloths, placemats, etc. depending on the size of the piece. The strips are typically woven in alternating patterns, so the overall effect is like a patchwork quilt when finished. I was fortunate enough to be able to study kente weaving for five days with the Ewe tribe in Ghana, and have documented some of what I learned here.

24 Photos

Kurofofrom - lost wax casting
Kurofofrom - lost wax casting

I stopped by a brasscasting village near Kumasi, where they showed me the process of lost-wax-casting

15 Photos

Daboya - spinning and indigo dyeing
Daboya - spinning and indigo dyeing

Daboya is a small town nearly due west of Tamale, a city in northern Ghana. It is primarily known as a production center for fugu, a blue-and-white smock commonly worn by people in northern Ghana. In Daboya, they spin cotton, weave the narrow strips, and sew the fugu.

16 Photos

Adinkra stamping in Ghana
Adinkra stamping in Ghana

Adinkra, or stamped fabric, is one of the textile arts of Ghana. I was fortunate enough to visit an adinkra stamper in his workshop; here are the photos from my visit.

19 Photos

Share this post!

  • Tweet
  • More
  • Email
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Print

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Information resources

  • Dye samples
    • Procion MX fiber-reactive dye samples on cotton
    • How to "read" the dye sample sets
    • Dye sample strategy - the "Cube" method
  • How-Tos
    • Dyeing and surface design
    • Weaving
    • Designing handwoven cloth
    • Sewing

Blog posts

  • All blog posts
    • food
      • chocolate
    • musings
    • textiles
      • dyeing
      • knitting
      • sewing
      • surface design
      • weaving
    • writing

Archives

Photos from my travels

  • Dye samples
    • Procion MX fiber-reactive dye samples on cotton
    • How to "read" the dye sample sets
    • Dye sample strategy - the "Cube" method
  • Travels
    • Thailand
    • Cambodia
    • Vietnam
    • Laos
    • India
    • Ghana
    • China

Travel Blog

Entertaining miscellanies

© Copyright 2016 Tien Chiu · All Rights Reserved ·