Adire

Adire

An epitome of African creativity.

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               Adire, a resist-dyed cloth ,is a beautiful west  african textile attributed to Nigeria associated with the natives of abeokuta and oyo. It became a popular attire by the ninteenth century.Back in time the dyeing involved the use of dye gotten from indigo a blue pigment plant but today it comes in a variety of colours with the advent of artificial colours,we now have colours like brown,green, purple, and so.  Adire is mostly done by the women folks ,the men make the necesary materials needed for its production for example the stencils.

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It is produced in a few number of ways: by tieing using raffia referred to as adire oniko also the popular  tie and dye; the resist method –Adire Eleko involves the use of starch derived cassava  a local resist agent.It goes in two ways;

•stamping : with a skillfully cut stencil from wood  designs are made on the cloth

               •free hand:involves using your hands to apply the starch to create the designs.

 The women extract the colours from the indigo plant using a local technique requiring ash, a pot ,caustic soda,fire wood.Nowadays there are artificial colours to complement it.

             Adire,by the 60s had gained general recognition all over the country.Nowadays, it is put on as a casual wear, on special occasions and so on.

            Adire has become an epitome of an creativity.

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sandie, posted this comment on Sep 14th, 2009

sounds good to me.

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