KENTE CLOTH – THE CLOTH OF KINGS

Supplies:

8” x 8” sheets of scratch paper

Pencils, erasers, lots and lots of crayons

12” x 15” Kraft paper sheets

Rulers

Optional: “The Fortune Teller” by Lloyd Alexander is a really entertaining children’s book with many

illustrations of people wearing “Kente” cloth attire. - triangles, clear plastic protractors for easier line drawing

Lesson:

Share read the Scholastic Art article that is provided in pdf format in this file, on your overhead. There is a

great deal of information in the booklet about Kente Cloth – “The Cloth of Kings”.

Explain to students that they are going to create designs for fabric in the style of “Kente” cloth. Explain that

textile artists plan and prepare designs for fabric.

Provide students with 8x8 sheets of plain white scratch paper. Take the time to demonstrate how to fold a

piece of paper. Show students how the paper is grasped, how the corners are carefully met together and how

the fold is pressed and then creased. Fold the paper in half horizontally, in half vertically, and then have

students open the paper and fold each edge up to the middle line and press and crease to end up with an

eight square grid. On one side students will practice designs for their cloth and on the other side students will

lay out a pattern.

Demonstrate how to measure to create a three inch grid on the Kraft paper cloth. This took a lot of time in

third grade classes. Students had no knowledge of the ruler. I demonstrated twice on the overhead being

careful to zoom in on the ruler to show where the inch marks were and which mark on the ruler (the longer

one beside the number – not the one above the number) is the one that marks the inch. Starting with the

paper in portrait orientation, students are instructed to mark at the 3, 6, 9 and 12 inches on the right side of

the paper and the same on the left side and then instructed how to spread finger and thumb on one hand to

stabilize the ruler while using the other hand to push the pencil up against the ruler when drawing the

horizontal lines connecting the marks they made at three inch intervals. Next have students turn the paper to

landscape orientation and perform the same demonstration and tasks to end up with 3” grids.

If you do not have time to demonstrate the use of a ruler – Cut 3” cardboard rulers – demonstrate how to line

them up and pair students up to have one hold the cardboard ruler while the other draws the lines. This takes

less time but is still a challenging task.

Next you work on the individual designs for the squares. Introduce the idea that all of the artwork they see

that people have been calling abstract is in fact NOT abstract but “non-representational”. Explain that you can

usually tell what the subject is in a piece of abstract art – that it just doesn’t look “real”. In non-

representational art – there is no tangible subject. This is a standard covered in this lesson and I therefore

review the subject with the artwork in the pdf file in this folder explaining that they will be drawing designs

that are non-representational.

For the pattern design, I show previous student work, draw examples on the board, and pass out laminated

sheets of examples (in the hard copy file of this project) for ideas and inspiration. Review organic vs.

geometric shapes and tell students we are looking for designs similar to those on the cloth shown in the

scholastic art article. A simple reminder that you should not be able to see any objects in their artwork is

helpful, i.e.; no stars, no hearts, no swirls, just geometric (nonrepresentational) shapes.

While students work quietly I introduce the idea that textile design is an art career and what a textile designer

might be expected to do in their job.

Next, clarify that a pattern is: over and over again. After students fill the design idea side of their scratch

paper they choose four different square designs and label them clearly – A,B,C, & D. Then students turn the

paper over and mark the squares as follows:

A B A B

C D C D

A B A B

C D C D

See examples at the end of this file.

The practice sheet is one row shorter than the finished piece which is fine – they can guess what comes next

on the finished sheet. After the practice sheet is labeled – students free hand draw their designs on the

scratch paper and have it approved before drawing the designs on the Kraft paper – with rulers only.

Finally students choose up to six colors to use in a repetitive pattern throughout the composition. (I have my

students mark the colors in their sketchbook and have them approved (no yellow; it doesn’t mark well on

Kraft paper, no pink; it isn’t traditional, no black; it kills a composition, no two very similar colors; they confuse

the pattern, etc.). Insist students mark each shape with the color that will be used in that space or they will get

to talking and daydreaming and end up coloring a shape incorrectly, upsetting their pattern. This will take a

lot of time. Think about putting on some African music and maybe reading a children’s story during one of the

lessons. It is important the students really saturate the paper with crayon. When the design is done they

crumple the paper up to give it a “crackly” look that simulates fabric.

You might read “The Fortune Teller” by Lloyd Alexander is a really entertaining children’s book with many

illustrations of people wearing “Kente” cloth attire.

An additional 2 minute video resource for organic vs. geometric shape can be found at the following link:

http://www.artsconnected.org/toolkit/watch_shape_geometric.cfm

If time allows, view the pdf in this file titled “Textile Art” which includes an enlightening history of textiles with

pictures.

Assessment:

There is a multiple choice sheet page of questions in this file that may be used for assessment or review.

If the student correctly lays out a pattern and colors it well, and chronicles their process in a sketchbook, they

have satisfied the objective.

The following Math standards are optional. I have taught the lesson with a strong math component, working

examples of dividing the space into halves, quarters, thirds, etc., and it becomes an effective way for students

to visualize fractions.

VA standard 1.5 Identify and describe elements of art in works of art, emphasizing line, color, shape/form, texture, space, and value.

VA standard 2.1 Explore ideas for art in a personal sketchbook.

VA standard 3.1 Compare and describe various works of art that have a similar theme and were created at different time periods. (Textile Art pdf)

VA standard 3.3 Distinguish and describe representational, abstract, and nonrepresentational works of art.

Math standard 3.0 Understand the relationship between whole numbers, simple fractions, and decimals.

Math standard 3.0 Compare fractions represented by drawings or concrete materials to show equivalency and to add and subtract simple fraction in context (e.g. ½ of a pizza is the same amount as 2/4 of another pizza that is the same size; show that 3/8 is larger than ¼

After practicing designs in a sketchbook, the

student fills the folded paper grid with 16 of

the designs.

Student example of 16 designs.

The student has identified the four that he

wants to use and labeled them as A, B, C and

D.

The student has laid out the design

pattern that is ready to be copied onto

their Kente Cloth.

You might want to have students paste

their practice sheet and layout in their

sketch book, cronicling their work which

is a third grade standard.

I take the extra step of having them

choose a range of colors that they mark

in their sketchbook, testing to see how

they relate and then marking on their

practice sheet where the colors will go.