Ancient Interior Design

African Pottery News – What’s Behind the African Pottery Craze?

African pottery exudes the beauty and richness of Africa. The hand made art continues as an exciting home decor enhancement for any room. Many interior designers use it to add a touch and class and culture to a rooms ambiance.

The African continents master potters, who are mostly made up of women, display their skilful hand dexterity by carefully fashioning an assortment of pottery. They painstakingly color the pot surfaces with slips or other mixtures made from natural vegetable bases. Next they apply decorative designs, patterns and tribal symbols with wooden or metallic tools. Finally they fire the containers slowly at low temperatures and finish by burnishing or polishing them.

The flexible quality of moist clay and a potter’s skill allow her to create forms ranging from small decorative bowls huge water bottles of detailed complex shapes. These decorative objects, can add a adventurous look to your room.

The hand made African art home decor goes through a fascinating process. For example, once a vessel is formed. it’s then dried to a leather-hard state. Now a potter has a series of choices to make. Pottery master may cut detail designs into the clay surface with wood or a sharp metal blade. The next choice she has is to create a roughened, textured surface by impressing intricate patterns with a roulette. She can then polish the surface to a high sheen or change the original appearance by adding handles, stands or legs, giving it a useful appearance.

The master potter often colors the entire surface or apply a slip (colored, clay wash) to add interest and highlights to the decorative areas. These colors will often appear on the most visible parts of a vessel, for example, the neck and shoulder of an African vase. The placement of one of these vases can add life to the dark corner of a room or liven up a lonely window sill.

African furnishings include the large array of colorful pottery, ceramics and other crafts. The hand made masterpieces will stand the test of time if purchased intelligently. Because of the low cost of labor to make this home art decor, it’s one of the best values for your money compared to much of the manufactured home decor on the market. It’s also earth friendly because it’s made from natural materials from start to finish. The trend is expected to continue to grow for African pottery.

About the Author

Roy Primm, publisher of Black Homeowner News has written dozens of articles on the growing popularity of African decor. For more tips, trends and ideas go to African Decor

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