The African Textiles Are in Place

 

I’ve missed these terribly. They’re either Ajar veils or Bakhnug shawls, which are part of the attire of Berber women. We had them in the hall in Sotogrande (the deep red piece on the right):

And we’ve been waiting for some dusty activities to be done before putting them up here – as now Mike is no longer working on building II, things here at the house are starting to move more quickly.

ignore the intercom

In Spain they hung either side of the living room door, and here we’ve done the same thing. Forgive the pictures, the light today is horrendous.

You can’t tell from the photos, but they go a long way to making the hall more lively and friendly. I wasn’t sure how they’d look in the context of a consummately French interior, but they’re great. Black, white and red is usually a safe bet.

Bakhnugs come in red and beige, like ours, in cream and black and also in a wonderful indigo blue which you can see here. And if you’re interested in this sort of thing, there’s a really wonderful well illustrated text (by an expert) here.

from the text: “…These shawls are woven with white cotton on white wool. They are dowry pieces and are dyed only after marriage. It is said that white is for young women, red is for mature and blue is for older women; however, there are enough variations on this idea to merit further investigation. [A similar color symbolism seems to be practiced by Turkmen who wear the chyrpy, although white, in the Turkmen usage, seems honorific, and is awarded to mothers (only) over 60 seen to merit it.]”