Weya 4 Panel Story Quilt of Village Life Zimbabwe

Handmade Weya 4-panel story quilt retells a short story of life in a Zimbabwe village.

Title: "Brewing Opaque Beer"

Panel 1: Two women are back from fetching some water with clay pots.

Panel 2: She is brewing the beer in a drum.

Panel 3: Two women are refining the beer with a sack.

Panel 4. A man and a woman are now drinking the beer in clay pots.

ORIGINAL NOTE INCLUDED

This Weya 4-panel story appliquéd quilt depicts sequences of what everyday life looks like for a woman in a Zimbabwean village.

With the Weya quilt, we introduce our customers to a type of African artistic expression that has been strongly influenced by ''Western art." In the past, critics have regarded Western influence as producing less valuable African art than the traditional and ritual "indigenous" art of Africa. However, Contemporary artistic output now appearing as a result of the interplay between Western and African cultures is enjoying new popularity with collectors and museums.

The Weya quilt is a product of a group of women living in rural Zimbabwe who were taught by the European artist Ilse Noy. Ms. Noy came to Zimbabwe in 1984 as a member of the German Volunteer Service. After working for three years at the Cold Comfort Weaving Co-operative on the outskirts of Harare, Ilse moved to Weya, a small communal area in Zimbabwe. There she taught local women sewing and painting skills, and appliqué and embroidery techniques. Today the Weya quilt workshop has become a veritable industry and the quilts are sold across Zimbabwe, in neighboring countries, and in fact, all over the world.

The diverse themes depicted on the quilts reveal many aspects of the Weya women's culture. The quilt-makers have in effect translated their daily life into their works, alluding to their marriage, their husband and children, sexuality, death, spirits, ancestors, hopes, and worries. The quilts are inspiring expressions of humanness and have proved to be great sources of revenue for the brave artists who make them.

We do not recommend laundering textiles and do not accept returns of textiles which have been laundered in any manner. Even dry cleaning is too much for some of these antique textiles. For some of them, a very gentle HAND washing (NEVER MACHINE, on any setting) in cool water with a very gentle detergent works, but even then, dyes may not be colorfast, and fabric may be less strong than it appears.