Never boring: Fabric & Folklore

Every year, we use an art project to decorate our "take-home" folders. We honor the children's finished work by creating a beautiful package in which to present it to parents and other family members. After procrastinating this project way beyond a reasonable start-time last year (for which I'd like to blame Ike), I vowed that this year we would start early!

Inspiration for this year's folder art arrived with Mrs. D in the form of a "mud cloth" bag (from Hallmark, of all places!). We began by discussing Bogolanfini, the lovely black and white textiles created by the indigenous Bamana people of Mali, Africa. We studied the laborious process by which these fabulous fabrics are created. The women incorporate signs and symbols into their designs in order to relay stories about important community events.

We then examined similarities to the artwork of the Aboriginal people of Australia and the symbols they use in the secret-sacred origin stories of "The Dreamtime." It is remarkable that two groups of people, oceans apart, use surprisingly similar symbols with which to cover their bodies in the stories of their people. Both cultures reflect a time when art and language were more integrated forms of communication. I spent last weekend swimming (treading water) in html code, learning how to update the website for the Public Montessori Educators of Texas 2009 Conference (hence the extended blog break!). Much like this modern code, the hidden messages behind the Bamana and Aboriginal symbols are designed to remain somewhat elusive to outsiders!

First, the children coated manila envelopes in a layer of black paint. (Watching their various techniques and strategies for this process provided fascinating insight into the ways in which each child approaches a project.)

To develop individual designs, the children studied traditional African and Australian symbols, in addition to creating their own new symbols.