Cow Dung Art - Imigongo

I'm not sure I ever made mud-pies when I was a child, I think I was too much of a clean-freak and so the thought that one day I'd be making art from cow dung would have been unthinkable.  And yet this weekend, I was found to be handling the stuff with my bare hands all in the name of art.

'Imigongo' is a traditional art form, using a mix of cow dung and ash to form geometric (and symmetrical) designs on a wooden board.  Although the more adventurous/skilled may be a little more abstract...

The Imigongo Cooperative in Kirehe District, Eastern Province came to Kigali to teach my friends and I how to produce some cow-dung art.  They were FAB and I highly recommend them if you are in Rwanda.  It's a fun, unusually therapeutic weekend - it's smelly but there's no need to wear a peg on your nose or gloves on your hands (the cow dung dust will get you regardless!)

We began with a board, a piece of charcoal and a strip of dried banana-plant leaf.  The banana leaf was used as a measuring device.  It felt like a piece of corrugated card...very strange!

Using the charcoal, we outlined our design.  Not quite sure what the inspiration was for mine.

This is Alexis and Zacharie dishing out the dung.  Zacharie was the main instructor and spoke in Kinyarwanda with Alexis translating.

So that's cow dung mixed with ash.  These guys carried that stuff on the bus for 2.5hrs...feeling sorry for those on the bus because the smell was quite potent!  Although for 7 of us, I was expecting more dung but it wasn't necessary.

And that's my design with the manipulated cow dung.

Some of the party girls showing off their designs...(Can you tell which shadow is mine?)

The imigongo party - to celebrate Lauren's birthday.

Day 2, I decided to dress up as a Christmas tree to be a little bit more festive...

Here are some of the other girls' designs - a little bit more traditional

Petra is sanding down the dried cow dung to prep for painting

Base coat painting

And the finished pieces

Girls above their pieces - wishing I'd gone a bit more 'traditional' but there's always next time.

An enjoyable weekend.  And yes, my piece of art does still smell of poo but apparently the smell will go within a week...watch this space.

Should you wish to do this, check out http://kodumuki.wordpress.com/ - seriously worthwhile.  I'd definitely do it again!  Both Zacharie and Alexis' numbers are on the website.