By: Jake da Motta Photos: Tribal Textiles
“The textiles started from simple beginnings, under winterthorn trees in a small safari camp on the banks of the Luangwa Rivhe South Luangwa Nation- er. We set up some makeshift al Park in Zambia is world-retables on logs and started worknowned for superb game viewing with art technique books ing in a remote and beautiful with trial and error, with time wilderness area. As a tourist and patience. From our limited visiting the park, the last thing bush resources—a wood-fired you would expect to find there is kiln and running water in the a creative, hand-painted textiles shallows of the river out of the workshop producing stunning, reach of crocodiles, Tribal slowly high quality home furnishings. emerged. Inspiration for our But that’s exactly what Tribal early designs came from the Textiles is. environment and the wildlife on the doorstep of this remote little Tribal was started twenty five industry. Tribal grew slowly years ago this year by director with the support of local safari and owner Gillie Lightfoot, who operators and tourism. Orders fills in the story... were made on the HF radio, in those days of no phones or
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emails, and delivered by me in my Land Cruiser by driving 8 hours through the bush to the nearest camps.”
The technique used is a relatively simple starch resist method derived from Mali mud cloth. Individual designs are drawn freehand onto cotton with a flour and water starch solution. The starched pieces are then dried in the African sun before being hand-painted by local artists. The paints are mixed by hand using primary pigments and a base emulsion. Colours are matched by eye to swatches created by Gillie in different colourways. After painting, the pieces are baked, which makes the dye colour-fast and fully washable.
