Arts and Crafts
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania
In Tanzania,
Tingatinga paintings have become a popular art form. The paintings are named after Edward Said Tingatinga (1937-1972), who painted them while working on building sites. When they became popular, he taught his relatives to paint in the same style. The paintings use bright colors to depict local life, and use the method of dots of paint, such as in impressionist paintings, to shade the colors of trees and rivers. The trees, for instance, would be painted by dots of paint in a couple shades of green, and so forth.
Tingatinga painting
Materials needed:
Heavy paper for painting
Bright colored acrylic or tempera paints
Paintbrushes
Pencils
Styrofoam meat trays for mixing paints
Newspaper
Cover your work area with newspapers. Have crafters begin painting a picture of Tanzanian village life. Begin by outlining the objects they with to include: trees, rivers, huts, people, marketplaces, and animals. When it is time to color in the painting, use the brush to make dots of paint. The river, for instance, can be colored with dots of the blue paint you have with space in between. Then mix your blue paint with white for a lighter blue color, and layer those into the river. Darker shades can be mixed by adding black. Use this technique for the rest of the picture: Leaves, rooftops, bird feathers, people's clothing, and so on.
Tie-dyed fabric is common in Tanzania, where it is used for table cloths or wrap-arounds. You can tie-dye your own fabric or t-shirt.
Tie dye
Materials needed:
White cotton fabric squares or white t-shirts
Marbles or small plastic beads
Cotton thread or rubber bands
Plastic bucket
Rubber gloves
Cold water fabric dye
To make a design, lay a marble or bead on the fabric. Gather the fabric over the marble, and fasten it by tying with thread or a putting on a rubber band. Repeat at intervals, and add additional ties or rubber bands as desired.
Wearing gloves, make up dye in bucket according to package instructions. Put tied fabric or t-shirt into dye for 20 minutes. Take out and rinse, let dry with ties in place.
Fabric can be used as a scarf or bandanna, wall hanging, or made into a hair scrunchie.