Our third offering in our By Hand + With Love series is a small curated collection of the most beautiful handwoven textiles from West Africa. I've been gathering these for a while (honestly, almost every time I've sourced glass beads over the last 20-plus years from my longtime friend and vendor of African designs who hails from West Africa himself, I added a textile or two to my own collection) and I'm thrilled to share a few with you here! 

Most of this collection is vintage, though some are more contemporary examples of African fabric. Each is entirely spun, woven, or sewn by hand and dyed with organic materials, all in an ancient tradition by richly talented craftspeople, the result of which is honored and celebrated for its beauty, quality, usefulness, and meaning. Some of these cotton creations hail from Mali, others from the Ivory Coast, and still others from Burkina-Faso. The texture, colors, details, imperfections, and hand-crafted character of each textile tell a remarkable story and bring an authentic artistry to any setting.

A few ways I enjoy them:

They can also be turned into pillow covers (with the help of someone who sews!) or even used as upholstery fabric (I have big plans to cover my great-grandmother's sofa with a few of them soon...) hung as a tapestry, or stitched together for a bed coverlet. I'm hopeful you'll appreciate and adore them as I do, and I can't wait to see which ones catch your eye.

1. Collage - Elva Fields

2. Soap - Claus Porto

3. Sconce - Joss and Main

4. Mirror - Signature Hardware

5. Rug - nuLoom

6. Sink - EcoDesigner Concrete

7. Flowers - Johnny Seeds

8. Tile - Clé Tile

9. Wallpaper - Caitlin Wilson

A long holiday weekend and lots of rainy weather meant some crafting was bound to happen with my little ladies to keep us (me) from going stir-crazy. Thanks to an earlier trip to my new favorite art store in town (Louisville peeps, if you don't know, now you know: Artist & Craftsman Supply!) I had a paper bag full of polymer clay and some packets of paracord that was a sure bet of at least an hour-ish of jewelry-making with my favorites. And as long as they're crafting, they're not whining, so it's a win all around.

Here's what we used to make the magic happen:

• colorful packets of polymer clay (we used a few of these and these)
• wood skewers (actually, we didn't use those, but I wish we had...we made do with the handles of our trusty paintbrushes, which was a little tricky, so something with a point would've been money)
• a small and very dull knife (my kids are old enough to be moderately safe with a little kitchen knife, but if you wanted to get fancy and have the official tools, my guess is this set would be legit)
• our hands
• a cutting board
• an oven
• parchment paper
• cookie sheet
• paracord (make sure the diameter of the cord is smaller than the holes in your beads...I've heard meltdowns can happen when the beads can't actually be strung on the cord you originally purchased because it's too thick and "why didn't you tell us to make the holes bigger???")

Honestly, it was pretty great just letting the girls do their thing and make whatever kinds of beads they wanted, but the style that was easiest for us all (seen above) involved rolling a base color of clay into a ball, then applying little confetti-like pieces to the outside of it, and rolling it a bit more to create a fun dotted design. 

Once we made our beads and created a hole through it (or tried to) we placed them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and baked them at 275 for 15 minutes (I think. The packet of clay will walk you through that part...)

After letting the beads cool, (and waiting a week because Mom's eyeball measurements don't always pan out) we strung them on the CORRECTLY SIZED paracord and now have awesome necklaces to remind us of being together for a long weekend and surviving...mostly with smiles on our faces!