Indigenous African : Bark Cloth

Original bark cloth 

Jose Hendo bark cloth collection- I heart fashion Copyright

This cloth originated from Mbuti people, Democratic Republic of the Congo. In Africa, sometimes the climate can be either too hot or wet to produce wool, silk or cotton, people make cloth not only by weaving but, by also pounding it from the bark of trees. Sheets of soft inner bark are pounded on wooden anvils to soften and expand them.The sheets are now joined together to make huge cloths.The last stage is to decorate the cloth by free-hand painting, by stenciling or by rubbing it over carved pattern blocks.

What a process! Love it!