Fabric Shopping Ikenga

When designing the Ikenga Puppet I had found the fabric I wanted to use for it before even starting the construction period. I envisioned the blue and white dimond pattern to be the main body of the puppet, it would then be accented with tones of tan and sand rings around the body. I picked this fabric as it was a genuine duotone wax print fabric from Ghana, 100% cotton, it was also from a fair trade supplier which was another selling point especially in the carnival feel of community coming together and this carnival especially showing the importance of African industry and invention and its importance to England.  

However when starting the construction period I came to a tough ethical choice as a designer, the budget would not stretch enough to fit the amount of fabric that was needed approx 10 - 15 meters of fabric was needed to create the tubes of the arms and legs and the unique shape of the body. With the fabric costing £14 per meter it would use at least £140 of £200 budget leaving only £60 for all the structural work.  With this I knew I was not able to use the fair trade wax print fabric i had hoped to use, and as i had already semi feel in love with this fabric i knew it was going to be difficult to find an African print fabric that i liked as much for the puppet.

As a professional I had to stick to a budget no matter how hard i wanted to support this fair trade company, at the end of the day i could not risk not completing the under structure of the piece to a high standard as this has to be very secure and safe. This however didn't stop me personally buying some fabric samples and beads from my personal account that i might try include in the base costumes as a reminder of the fairtrade community. 

Finding the new fabric for the piece was difficult after finding my ideal fabric, i found it easier to search for fabrics by looking for very specific things; geometric prints, wax prints, blues, yellows, natural tones, natural fabric.

To Pale For Carnival

Pattern To Close Together

To Much Red

Pattern Not Geometric Enough

To feminine for male god figure 

Print to small

This was the next fabric found that i felt would work for the puppet. It had the traditional African feel, it was the right colours, the patterns in the fabric reminded me of elements of the other costumes helping them all tie together as a collective. It was pretty perfect - So of course there was only one 6yard bundle left and no more coming in for a while. Of course it was to good to be true so the hunt continued. 

Until i stumbled across this fabric online.

Julius Holland is a well known fabric company with in the African community. And although it wasn't as bright as the other fabrics it did echo that natural theme that i wanted to show with in the Ikenga , Past materials mixing with the modern. The patterns with in the fabric matched the shapes in the design and the echo of teal in the pattern reminded me of one image of the Ikenga that i just couldn't get out of my head. I knew this was the fabric I wanted and luckily it was with in budget and in stock. Although a bit calmer than most carnival fabrics i felt paired with an accent of yellow the print would stand out as a traditional African piece.