Each spring Bahrain has a month-long event called Spring of Culture where they celebrate the arts, music, and handicrafts in various locations all over the island. Some events included an Eric Clapton concert at the Arad Fort (sold out in less than 5 minutes — I would have loved to go!), a Chinese Acrobat show, a children’s theater production of Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and countless others.
As part of the celebration, last week was Bahraini Heritage week at the national museum, featuring weavers, artists, musicians, and food all native to Bahrain. We went and sampled, purchased, and enjoyed.
I wasn’t sure the evening was going to go all that splendidly when 2 of the kids fell asleep in the car on the way there.
The theme for this year was Weaving Colors, with an emphasis on textiles and costumes/clothing. I loved this beautiful (and huge!) display of brightly colored spools of thread.
Carter had fallen on his face an hour before, Caleb was still waking up, but Camille was ready for fun.
The display stretched the entire width of the museum courtyard (multiply this section by 5 or 6)
These women are weaving gold metal threads (actual metal that another woman was twisting with a drop spindle) by reaching over and under each other’s hands to form a pattern. The woman with the needle is applying them to the hem of this garment.
The weaver! I loved seeing the loom strung with these beautiful cotton threads. He is weaving shawls/scarves in the traditional way.
This one is grey with charcoal stripes on the edges. The foot pedals raise and lower every other thread. Then he slides a horizontal thread through the gap between them, adjusts the pedals again so the threads switch places and trap the horizontal thread in place. It takes hours to make a piece of cloth this way.
The finished product is soft and pliable and a work of art. I bought this dove gray one with blue stripes on the edges. I love wearing it.
The basket weaver — the colored stripes are made from dyed palm fronds
Free floating art hanging from clear wires. They all featured various pieces of traditional clothing or fabric. The entire festival took place outdoors and it was a perfect warm evening to explore it all.
admiring the artwork
These women were embroidering clothing and pieces to be turned into pillowcases or wall hangings.
I was taken by this tribal looking piece and I bought it to have it framed
Warm evenings of music and dancing — every night for a week.
They also held workshops for both kids and adults. This particular class gave kids the opportunity to make a doll wearing traditional Bahraini clothes. Carter and Caleb saw the finished product and begged me to sign them up the following night so they could make their own dolls. I’ll put that adventure in a post of its own.
ETA: I just realized that this is post #1000! May I have 1000 more stories to tell . . .
