When I dipped into John Hopper’s The Textile Blog  this morning, I hadn’t visited in a while, and found this timely article on the Tentmakers of Cairo.  This beautiful textile art is basically handstitched direct applique of brightly coloured Egyptian cotton onto a canvas base, in intricately detailed islamic and pharaonic designs.

And if the Tentmakers textiles are new to you, I recommend you take time to read this article, marvel at the striking beauty of the pictured works in it , and give thought to this exerpt by John  – “The world of generational craft seems to be constantly hanging on to that of the contemporary world by its fingertips. I don’t endorse projects lightly, but anyone who is a regular visitor to this site knows that I have always underlined the fact that a robust creative world, particularly in the crafts, is an infinitely better one. We should feel that we have contributed, whether through personal creativity or deed, to the betterment of creativity generally, leaving the creative world a better place than when we arrived and in better shape for the future generations to come.” 

The article is timely – reminding us that the crowdfunding campaign on www.Pozible.com.au/tentmakers/ is in its last few days, with the level of interest and the pace of donations picking up well, but if you’ve been meaning to pledge a donation – please, do it now before you forget again!

Although  I have posted this pic of the 2m sq hanging on our bedroom wall and daily enjoy the rich colour combinations and fine workmanship, so too I hope you haven’t wearied of seeing it either.  In addition to the glorious colours, I guess because I particularly love patterns based on grids, this one really appealed,  and Mike certainly deferred to my judgement in such an important textile matter as selecting this one, just as I would with anything related to rocks and minerals…..

When Mike bought the above plant, unlabelled, for about US$3 a few weeks ago, it was about 20cm high, and had lovely green slightly shiny leaves with rounded serrations, making it a nice bit of greenery to replace something in a tub on a 1st floor terrace that had succumbed to the hot weather while we were away.  Since  then it has grown quite a bit, and to our amazement the serrations of the leaves have morphed to produce tiny little plants which are dropping off and several have already started growing around the parent.  We think it is very beautiful.

I put a pic of it out on Facebook, and comments there confirmed my suspicion this will become a weed and perhaps a real pest before too long !  The comments were educational – the plant is one of the Kalanchoe family,  known in some places as ‘mother of thousands’, and someone warned of the toxic nature of the leaves.  But as there are plenty of toxic plants in our gardens, and we have faced some pretty formidable weeds in our time, we’ve decided for the moment at least it stays in its pot up on the 1st floor terrace.  All these little new plants remind me of those animals such as sea horses, some fish and spiders that carry around many tiny offsprings inside or clinging to their bodies until they’re large enough to let go.

Mike and I were recently  in Panama city for the first time – it won’t be the last.   We endured humidty and heat and enjoyed wonderful sights and sounds, lots of colour in street markets and the fish market for example, and of course we visited and stood awed at the Panama Canal.  We especially enjoyed wandering in the fabulous old part of the city, the Casca Antigua, where decay had almost defeated the buildings some of which are 500 years old – but it didn’t quite win, because the old part of the city was declared a World Heritage site, and these days there’s masses of preservation and reconstruction going on there.  Every second person wears a hard hat, neon vest and steel toed boots.  They’re working hard, and fast.

In the markets everywhere are stalls selling handicrafts, the most popular and desirable imho being molas, as pictured above.  For decades I have been intrigued by these textiles, and after a lot of looking I bought two  two gorgeous, vibrant coloured pieces of finely handworked reverse  applique, a technique practiced by the Kuna Indians of  NW Colombia and Panama’s  San Blas Is.  I have a book on their history with lots of pics, somwhere in the library back in Perth, but not not close to hand.  However there are many links on the internet – I liked the site Molas: the Craftsmanship of the Kuna Indians     Make a cup of tea then google ‘molas’, and scrolling down you’ll find a site of images – goodness knows how many –  total eye candy, don’t foget to drink and enjoy your tea.

Traditionally patterns were built around shapes of natural objects and geometric patterns – very tatoo-like and some non-pictorial ones strike some eimilarity with the designs of some Australian Aborigines.  Over the last 200 years, the traditional patterns have gradually changed to include designs reflecting increasing contact with ‘modern’ civilisation – some late C19 and C20 patterns are built for example around a biplane, or a certain distinctive shaped soft drink bottle from lands to the north.  A fascinating, beautiful traditional embroidery genre,  and I am thrilled to have found these.  There’s a lot of  less well-made of course but priced at the same levels of the well-made, ready to be pushed onto unwary tourists who have no idea about craftsmanship.  I also went for less pushy salesmanship, too!    As I browsed and chose, the word ‘antigua’ was tossed in if the vendor thought that might help me decide on one, but I knew what I wanted and was only interested in buying a well made colourful modern piece or two.   I doubt there are too many genuine antiques around today, and I probably couldn’t afford one anyway.  I’d like to go to the islands and see them being made and used inserted into garments – and as the garment wears out (tropical, humid, inevitable)  they’re removed, washed and re-used in a new garment.  I love everything about these textiles.

Briefly, layers of fabric are cut back to reveal another colour beneath – then the raw edges turned under and finely stitched down.  The process is repeated, often small pieces being added in just parts – until a complex picture of coloured lines and shapes is built up…. and  for this reason it is called ‘reverse applique’ as fabric is removed, not added, to make the design.  You might consider it to be somewhere like opposite to what the tentmakers do in their craft:

What will I do with these molas? Well, certainly admire and fondle them now and then.  I  really don’t think I will use them in tote bags or on yolks of smock type garments – but eventually I will probably mount them on artists canvas stretchers and hang somewhere.  I have another back in Perth from my first ever trip to South America back in 1989 … yes, its time to go and fondle that one again soon, and take the photo I never have taken of it !

Just after our 2007 trip to Egypt I wrote in this blog about The Tentmakers , all men, who make appliqued fabric wall hangings tradionally used to line tents, and today still provide gorgeous wall hangings as backdrops to festive events.

At the top, Ashraf is shown sewing in the traditional sewing position, which for various reasons I would find impossibly uncomfortable, and so would most needleworkers I know.  Small fabric shapes are cut out with gigantic scissors (usually 12″ blades) and rapidly sewn to the backing fabric by hand, as shown.   In the lower pics, at left is a tent selling printed fabrics, and the lower right shows how genuine hand made hangings were used at the campsite in The White Desert where we  spent a night.

It’s an ancient craft, going back over 800 years.  But the craft and ancient heritage is largely unappreciated in Egypt itself, where people get the same visual effect from cheaper printed fabric featuring traditional designs.   The tentmakers are thus heavily dependent on tourism, where visitors to the city inevitably marvel at the work and take away as much of it as they can afford – we certainly did !  – that is IF they have heard of it and know where to find this one street in the old Islamic quarter of Cairo.  It’s not usually publicsed by hotels or tour operators.  We were taken there by friend Jenny Bowker who, during the time her husband served as Australia’s ambassador to Egypt, must have personally taken hundreds, perhaps thousands, of visitors there, and that she had become very good friends with these people was highly eveident.  Without her we would not have been shown this large important commission in progress:

Jenny is pictured holding and looking at one of the set of ninety nine, that’s 99,   1.5m long wall hangings, of widths varying from 3-5m, and that’s a huge amount of fabric and work!  I don’t remember which number they said this one was …. When finished the set of hangings was destined to be installed in a large building in another middle eastern country.  At top left is a portion of one hanging turned to show the back – the fabric is appliqued directly to canvas, perhaps a sail weight,  and the needle picks up just a few of the threads with each stitch.  At right the owner of the workshop and showroom is holding one of the many cartoons from which the shapes were meticulously drawn onto the fabric, and for which every small piece of fabric was cut.  It would have been very important to get the symbols and heiroglyphics exactly right on these hangings.

There’s currently a fundraising campaign to support the maker of a full length documentary on the tentmakers and their craft.  The purpose is to broaden the knowledge of this work within and outside of Egypt.  Since leaving Egypt, Jenny herself has taken collections of the tentmakers work usually accompanied by one or two of the craftsmen themselves, to quilt, textile and fibre art exhibitions and galleries in Australia, UK, europe and north america.  Textile lovers have become enthusiastic fans and collectors – but a documentary dvd will be another valuable tool in publicising this wonderful traditional textile art.  With the political instability of the past couple of years these people are hurting more than ever as tourists stay away from Egypt.  But nothing stays the same for ever, and it is hoped that as conditions improve, more people will know in advance of one place they really should visit when in Cairo.  If you want to know how you can help, visit the Facebook page for The Tentmakers of Chareh El-Kiahmiah where you  can always see lovely pics and comments, sign up for a newsletter each month, and make a financial donation to help the film project on its way.