Tuesday, December 13, 2016

December Angel Paper Day - Day 13

As promised, today's outfit is entirely different than yesterday's!

Today's outfit is another one directly influenced by African cultures, namely kente cloth.  Kente cloth has its origins in Ghana and the Ashanti kingdom.  There is a ton of information about kente cloth out in the world - I started with Wikipedia.  Like the rest of this project, I really only skimmed the surface of scholarly information available.

Right-click to download and print

The outfit is based on one I found on Pinterest.  I loved the drape of the cloth and the idea of holding a large wooden bowl.  I knew I wanted to use kente cloth patterns at some point in this project.  Kente cloth is highly symbolic.  Colors and patterns are very meaningful. The pattern I used is called Fathia Fata Nkrumah.  I also saw it referred to as a stars pattern.  It symbolizes unity, among other things.  As for colors, I chose blue for peace, gold for royalty, green for the land and spiritual growth, and white for pureness and faith.  The bowl holds papayas, a fruit that is now grown in tropical regions throughout the world.  I was initially going to put apples in the basket but that felt really generic.  I also like the technical challenge of the papayas -- I used the good ol' gradient mesh tool in Illustrator.  It's a tough tool to master but SO amazing when it works!

We're closing in on the half-way point of the project....plenty more to come! 

5 comments:

  1. Love this dress, though I openly confess I don't know I would have known those were papayas if you hadn't told me. Not because of your art, but because, embarrassing as it is to say, I have no idea what a papaya looks like.

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  2. I thought I commented on this one yesterday, but apparently the internets ate it. I love this dress and I really like the papayas. Though I confess, if you hadn't said, I don't know I would have known they were papayas. Mostly, because I honestly don't think I could identify a papaya if I had too. :)

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    1. Ha! Yeah, I don't know what happened. I went to answer you today and saw that the comment was gone.

      I don't think I'd recognize these as papayas, either. I though about including a cut one but that didn't seem to make sense. If nothing else, the colors of my random fruit work well!

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  3. if pressed, i think i could have identified the papayas. it's not a fruit i like (it smells so disgusting), but the shape is kinda unique.

    love love love the pattern and the drape on this. like the off-the-shoulder style too. super nice!

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    1. I totally wouldn't know what an uncut papaya looks like!!

      I love the pattern, too. I thought it would be more difficult to make seamless than it actually was.

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