3. CALABASH DECORATION:
Calabash decoration has become an important aspect of Nigeria art experiences. It involves the creation of beautiful effects on the surface of a calabash using the design elements. Gourds belong to the family of pumpkins or cucumbers. When they are fully grown, and this is when the green skin becomes yellowish, one can only either allow pulp and the seeds inside to dry up in the sun thereby separating the hard shell from the yellowish skin which by this has turned yellow ochre in colours; or by soaking up the ripe gourd in water. This will be wash up later, clean, depending on the size and shape of the gourds, they can be utilized as calabash bowl for drinking water or liquid foods, hawking and storage of foodstuffs, as ceremonial bowls for social as well as religious occasions, as musical instruments (rattler, “shantu”,). Also gourds in the collection and storing of palm-wine; they are used by some tribes to shield the head from sun or rain; they are also use in storing apparel or trinkets.
The people known traditionally for decoration of calabash for visual appeal are from Oyo town in Oyo state.
The calabash decorators remove skin or cuticle off by scraping with a sharp knife before decoration. Also, the calabash can be painted red, burnt sienna, orange or black before decorative patterns are created.
The various methods of achieving decorations on calabash are: Carving, scraping, scorching, engraving. Lines of different types exist on the calabash design. Other patterns of tradition implications are used.
4. LEATHER WORKS AND SKIN DECORATION
Leather and skin works are widely practiced crafts in Northern part of Nigeria but they are in particular developed in sokoto, kano and Maiduguri. However, kano has remained the most important centre because of its position in business activities.
From the Northern cities, different types of leather products are produced ranging from bags, cushions, dress, and shoes, among others.
Jima-Tanning: Jima is the word for tanning in Hausa and every town of reasonable size has got a tanner’s yard. At kano, the Head Tanner is Alhaji Abubakar while the son Basha, takes charge of the snake, goat and sheep skin section.
PROCESS OF TANNERY
1 Whitening- Here, the dry skin is soaked in clean water for a day or more and then put in a solution of Toka (wood-ash) and farin Kasa (lime)
The skin then removed from the solution and spread on the wooden board for the hair to remove with a blunt metal knife (guza). This then washed in fresh water and soaked in “bagaruwa”, a solution of powered seeds for another day. This solution has the effect of making the leather very durable, pliable and smooth.
After this, the meat is scraped off the inner surface with a knife and then washes in fresh water. After this, toka is rubbed on the other side and spread to dry.
Introduction:
Nigeria is known all over for her artistic heritage. Some of her indigenous arts and craft weaving, pottery, calabash decoration, dyeing, leather work, carving, basketry among others. Also, Nigeria has produced a lot of contemporary artists whose creative efforts has placed Nigeria in the forefront of contemporary African art. However, the modernization of art work in Nigeria is still undergoing a process of evolution. It will come to stay with time.
SOME INDIGENOUS NIGERIA CRAFTS.
1. WEAVING is a very important aspect of craft making in Nigeria. It simply refers to the orderly in lacing of fibers which are pressed together to make a cloth. Generally, weaving involves the use of warp and weft. Warp refers to the vertical strips while weft refers to the horizontal strips. The act of weaving can be very simple and at the same time very complex. The simplicity and or the complexity of weaving as a pre-occupation is dependent upon the type of materials and equipment used. For example, the use of fibers and cottons in a loom may be nature such as the nests of weaver birds, the webs of spiders or the mat-like fibers found enclosing the trunk of the coconut-palm.
Materials for weaving can be paper-strips, fibers obtained from local plants, palm-frond, cane, grasses, ropes from forest, leather strips and any other flexible materials. Some fibers use foe weaving in Nigeria are raffia, silk and cotton.
There are different types of weaving; cloth-weaving and screen-weaving with cotton, sisal raffia and grass of different forms. In Nigeria there are important known traditional weaving centers namely: kano, Borno, Bida, Sokoto, Ihesin, Oyo, Okene, Itsekiri, Akwete, among others. Akwete cloth weaving is common among the Igbo’s. It is good to note that the economic importance of weaving is commendable.
2. DYEING:
This refers to the use of dye-stuff, colored chemical substance to alter the original color of the fiber. To achieve or create designs on any fabric, two important processes are involved. That is tie and dye and batik. Chemical involve in tie and dye and batik mainly:- dye-stuffs, caustic soda, washing soda, sodium sulphite popularly known as hydros, table salt, washing soda, etc.
