NaijaTalkTalk- Art and Craft In Nigeria

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.