Leather-Working Tool, Tezigiz or Telmusit
Tuareg, Niger
Steel, wood, brass, copper
20th century

When women artists (tinadan) work leather, they use sewing awls, a small wooden cutting board, a wooden implement for smoothing, a heavy stone, and a knife. In earlier times many of the dyes used by leatherworkers came from plants such as indigo, pomegranates, sorghum, and minerals, which yield black, green, yellow, reddish brown, and white. Many dyes today are synthetic. Leatherwork knives are small and used to cut pieces before assembly, as well as to incise and excise detailed decorative designs. The wooden end is used for impressing or scoring the leather. Designs refer to the natural and animal world and are similar to those used in metalwork. This particular knife has been decorated with a copper base in keeping with the belief that women should not touch iron and that copper neutralizes it (Seligman, Art of Being Tuareg - Sahara Nomads in a Modern World, 2006). 

9.5 in :: 24 cm

InventoryID #13-2768

SOLD