Egyptian Tentmakers at 13th European Patchwork Meeting

 

 

 

These photos are of work by Egyptian tentmakers from the Tentmkers Souq in Cairo. Jenny Bowker is bringing these wonderful pieces to Ste Marie Aux Mines including one of the tentmakers himself. Tentmaking is an age old tradition of creating hangings to decorate tents and any other festivities of the Egyptian people. They are apppliqued by hand and not quilted- and show a high degree of craftsmanship- and are wonderful vibrant artistic expressions of cultural identity. The blue piece is by Ibrahim Asfoura and will be at Ste Marie aux Mines. The other piece, is one I purchased when in Cairo last year- and though I have the artists name on a card unfortunately with all my room moving I cannot locate it at the moment. I particularly loved this piece because of the very individual embroidery detail.

But even better - these works will be for sale! I dare say they will create a high degree of interest- and the wonderful thing is by purchasing, you will be supporting a craft that has been dwindling over the last few decades ( I remember quite a few more tentmaker stalls on my visit to Cairo in 1989), by encouraging the younger ones to see that a living can be made from this wonderful tradition. So I suggest those of you attending the 13th Meeting of Patchwork head as soon as you can to Eglise St Louis in Ste Marie aux Mines!( all the work sold out in quick time when it was shown in Melbourne ealrier this year)

There is also still places in my free machine applique and embroidery class and the journal class ( some of which I have discussed in posts from last week) My other two classes are full. I have also had a cancellation of a class that was supposed to take place for a week long in Normandy in early October- if anyone is interested in me coming to teach in France, Belgium, Holland or England please let me know - as of course such a cancellation does impact quite substantially on the budgetting for this trip.