African Art - Materials

Materials

African art takes many forms and as such is made from many different materials. Jewelry is a popular art form and is used to indicate rank, affiliation with a group, or purely for aesthetics. African jewelry is made from such diverse materials as Tiger's eye stone, haematite, sisal, coconut shell, beads and ebony wood. Sculptures can be wooden, ceramic or carved out of stone like the famous Shona sculptures. Various forms of textiles are made including chitenge, mud cloth and kente cloth. Mosaics made of butterfly wings or colored sand are popular in west Africa.

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Famous quotes containing the word materials:

    If our entertainment culture seems debased and unsatisfying, the hope is that our children will create something of greater worth. But it is as if we expect them to create out of nothing, like God, for the encouragement of creativity is in the popular mind, opposed to instruction. There is little sense that creativity must grow out of tradition, even when it is critical of that tradition, and children are scarcely being given the materials on which their creativity could work
    C. John Sommerville (20th century)

    Though the hen should sit all day, she could lay only one egg, and, besides, would not have picked up materials for another.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

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    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)