Looms of Africa
Home Decor | Interiors | Apparel | Art
Creative design using African handwoven textiles
Looms of Africa by Usibakaiye transforms traditional attire and vintage strip cloth from across Africa into bespoke modern home and fashion design pieces. Well known African hand woven textiles such as Ghanaian Kente and Nigerian Aso-oke are dramatically reimagined and custom made into novel and enduring artifacts.
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Our mission is to upcycle or commission traditional Artisan Textiles from across Africa into bespoke modern hand made home and fashion design pieces. By doing so we promote the ancient art of Strip-Weave to a wider audience in order to preserve this heritage craft.
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Our products are made to order using durable modern or vintage textiles which can be stoned, beaded or embroidered upon request.
We promote benevolent society - We believe each person matters so we contribute to a more sustainable way for our Artisans Community to keep benefitting from their craft.
Looms of Africa plays a role in the financial well-being of indigenous artisans, who are slowly finding their way to economic independence through the increasing popularity of their beautiful woven crafts.
Mr Kola at his Loom in Iseyin, Nigeria
skilfully handcrafting Aso Oke strip weave
About Usibakaiye
Usibakaiye Agbeyegbe (Siba) is a British born Nigerian now living in Nevis in St Kitts and Nevis. Since moving to the Caribbean region Siba has devoted herself to being a textile artist and has developed her own style of depicting a range of West African strip cloth through modern attire, décor and tapestries which are a nod to the extreme versatility and majesty of the strips of cloth. Looms of Africa is the entity Siba created to present these works.
Usibakaiye, Looms of Africa
"African strip weave is just
too beautiful to be forgotten or discarded"
- Usibakaiye-
Siba’s artistic medium of choice is African strip weave. Often the pieces are recovered from ceremony attendees who no longer need the traditional items which have become clutter in their wardrobes. Siba reimagines these pieces into apparel, décor and art. Her mantra is that these beautiful handcrafted materials that take hours to weave on the part of the artisans who hand craft these items are just too beautiful to be forgotten or discarded.
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This art form is less well known outside of Africa however this centuries old strip weave artistic expression deserves to be recognized and showcased globally for the art form that it represents. Siba’s unique interpretation allows stripweave to come alive and translate into western world settings through the transformation of strips of cloth into wearable art and functional apparel/décor.