Set of four Kuba place mats, four different patterns
By Cécile Muamba · Kasai-Central, Democratic Republic of Congo
Every piece on Amussu is a one-off. If you want this, you take it now.
Either way, you are buying from Céciledirectly. The fee model and the relationship are the same — the only thing that changes is whether the piece already exists.
Four place mats, each in a different Kuba pattern. I made them specifically to show the range — from the simplest grid to one of the more complex named patterns. Each is labelled on the back with the pattern name in Tshiluba.
Four weeks in total. Each mat is a separate piece of cloth, not cut from a larger one.
The person who made this.
I weave Kuba cloth — the raffia cut-pile fabric from the Kasai region. The patterns are geometric and precise. Each one has a name and a history. My grandmother taught me twelve patterns. I can now teach twenty-seven. The cloth takes a long time. A piece the size of a place mat can take two weeks. A full hanging takes three months. I joined Amussu because someone in Kinshasa told me people in Europe paid forty euros for machine-made fabric that looked like mine. I want to be paid for mine directly.