Furnishings

Furniture, for most West Africans, was historically very personal.  The most important items were carried by individuals on trips to visit neighbors and often even into the grave.  Stools, cups, baskets, and pots were imbued with great significance.  Nevertheless, in most areas specialists took over much of the production of furnishing over the past 1500-500 years.  Often, these specialists were seen as having not only great skill but also some type of mystical power.  Furnishings themselves could be imbued with such power - the most famous being the Golden Stool of the Asante (Ashanti) which is so important that it has, itself, its own stool to sit upon.  Modern Ghanaian craftspeople are nevertheless informed by the global art markets and international ideas of artistry and craftsmanship.

Most of the producers of the furniture we carry are trained at the University of Kumasi, a technical school in the Asante capital.  Their products are manufactured using both traditional and modern tools, and are rigorously tested and quality controlled.  These artisans often run their own workshops, and are eager to manufacture both unique and mass-produced goods for international markets.  Afrodesign have made it our task to partner with them in pursuit of this goal.

DH Mini Stool

Amongst the Asante, the stool is a key symbolic item. Like the European crown, it is the symbol of a ruler’s sovereignty, and like the throne, it is the symbol of authority. These stools from the DH workshop of Kumasi, are modern interpretations designed to fit into contemporary homes, yet connect the owners with a sense of tradition. Hand-carved accents and the stool’s shape and materials are similar to those of chiefs’ stools, yet the work design is clean and the effect is one of modernity melded with tradition.

DH Check Cabinet

These cabinets are hand-constructed and carved with intricate traditional Adinkra designs. Functional, yet aesthetically pleasing, the decorative details make each cabinet unique. The Kumasi craftspeople who developed this design drew on classic forms, but the result is clearly African.

Del Screen

These handsome screens were designed and handmade by the artisan Del, who is a prime example of the synthesis of modern and traditional in Asante. A graduate of the Kumasi National University of Science and Technology, Del is a skilled industrial and rustic artisan. The screens are highly durable, and made of the finest materials. Hidden within the gorgeous aesthetic attributes of each screen is an Adinkra message or inspiration from the natural world.

About the Studios

Afrodesign Studios imports and distributes fine African arts and crafts. We partner with individual artisans, non-governmental organizations, and communities in Africa to make our approach to the business unique. We procure only the finest pieces of art, furniture, home accents, and crafts and carry out extensive research into the meaning and origins of each piece, so that our clients can fully appreciate their purchase.

Krobo Beads

The Adangme people of Krobo may be the most famous and skilled bead-makers in Africa, in part because beads play such an important part in their society - in rituals of birth, coming of age, marriage, and death.

Afrodesign sources our beads from Nomoda E Djaba, whose family have made beads for generations. Djaba's workshop, Cedi Beads, is located between the towns of Odumase and Sumanya in the idyllic Krobo region. The hills of Krobo have traditionally provided great resources to the local people, who are renowned farmers - especially of palm oil and cocoa - as well as craftspeople.

We are proud to be working with Djaba, whose Cedi Beads workshop is a fine example of entrepreneurship and innovation mixed with tradition. Djaba's artisans make use of scrap glass, which is ground into fine powder as it has been for centuries. The glass powder is then carefully formed into patterns and placed into hand-made clay molds covered in kaolin. The beads are fired, further decorated, washed, and strung. Djaba has recently introduced new techniques and even imports glass rods from Venice to produce new types of blown glass products. The beads we carry, however, all represent long traditions of production.

We do not interfere in either the design of the beads or the patterns in which they are strung, as each string is meaningful to the artisan, as you will see from the listings in the Gallery. Afrodesign hopes to continue to support Djaba's superb innovation and sense of tradition.

About the Studios

Afrodesign Studios imports and distributes fine African arts and crafts. We partner with individual artisans, non-governmental organizations, and communities in Africa to make our approach to the business unique. We procure only the finest pieces of art, furniture, home accents, and crafts and carry out extensive research into the meaning and origins of each piece, so that our clients can fully appreciate their purchase.

For more information on Krobo beads or other Afrodesign Studios products, please visit our online gallery at http://www.afrodesign.com or contact us directly.

The Craftsmen of Kumasi

Kumasi is the center of a great Ashanti (Asante) tradition of craftsmanship. Much of the tradition of Asante crafts has been sponsored by the Asante kings (Asantehenes) and other wealthy chiefs, and therefore there is a great tradition of glorious and highly-decorated crafts, with bead-work and metal-work favored decorations.  As such, the artisans of Kumasi have a unique heritage of excellence.

Although the Asante had no masking tradition of their own, as forest-dwellers and state-builders they have perfected the skills needed for woodworking.  Furniture, like the chiefly stool, is a specialty of craftsmen-families and individual artisans in Kumasi and elsewhere in Asante.  Woodworking has also entered in the Asante tradition of carving human forms, such as the famous Akuaba/Akwaba dolls meant to represent ideal beauty and aid fertility.

The Asante aesthetic of symmetry and simplicity has made the Kumasi furniture carried by AfroDesign especially beautiful.

The Famous Ga Carvers of Nungua

The Ga people have lived in southern Ghana for almost five hundred years, probably pre-dating even the Akan peoples such as the Fante and Ashanti/Asante.  The Ga town of Nungua, outside of Accra, has historically been a fishing village.  Fishermen still set out each day, except Tuesdays.  However, over time it has also become something of an artist’s colony.  Woodcarving is a traditional male pursuit in the town, but there have also been two major landmarks in the development of the artisan community.  The first was the evolution of the famous coffin-makers such as Paa Joe and Kane Kwei, as featured in National Geographic.  The second landmark was the founding of the Artists Alliance in Nungua by the acclaimed painter Ablade Glover.  The presence of the gallery attracts discerning art-lovers to Nungua, and has stimulated pottery, batik artistry, metalworking, drum-making and, of course, wood-carving in the town.

The artists we work with, mostly young people like Abdullah Alhassan and Mark Eliyakofi, live in Nungua, source their materials from the forests in the interior, and deliver individually hand-crafted works to us to sail from the nearby port of Tema.  Mr. Eliyakofi is committed to helping his community, and is training a number of young men in his workshop in wood-carving, brass-beating, beading, and polishing.  He, alongside AfroDesign, is helping to pass on the wood-carving tradition of Nungua to another generation.