Ndop Textile Panel – Process

These three textiles demonstrate the stages of creating an Ndop textile—an indigo-dyed prestige cloth associated with the royal and elite families of the Bamileke Kingdom in Cameroon. The first cloth demonstrates the tight stitching with thread made from the raffia palm. Areas that are stitched will not allow indigo to adhere to the handwoven, cotton fabric. The second textile illustrates what stitched fabric looks like after it emerges from the dye vat–it is blue, but still tightly stitched. The third fabric reveals the designs after the resist stitching is cut out.