The Quilt Week is put on by the American Quilter’s Society, the largest quilting society in the world. For the second year in a row, two tentmakers from Cairo will be presenting their work, said Bonnie Browning, executive director of the American Quilter’s Society.
Attendees can expect to see a new sort of activity called tentmaking. This is an ancient Egyptian craft dating back to biblical times, she said.
“Originally they made sides of tents, hence the name ‘tentmaker.’ They make them in panels and do this beautiful appliqué on one side, and the outside would then be the tent canvas,” Browning said.
Eventually their designs became prints, causing the demand for their talents to fall, she said.
Two years later the American Quilter’s Society is still working with the tentmakers.
“The American Quilter’s Society is the exclusive representative for the exhibition and sale of their work in the United States,” Browning said.
In effect, the shows are among the only venues to display their work.
Out of the 125 vendors, the two tentmakers will be the only international vendors, she said.
The average tent wall is 100 inches by 100 inches, but that size has changed for artistic purposes, Browning said. They still craft tent walls for weddings, funerals and other occasions, but primarily make them smaller to hang on walls or for cushions.
While it is important for the tentmakers to pass the talent on throughout their families, it is primarily men who create the panels and artwork, she said. The only women who are allowed in the same room as they are made, let alone allowed to stitch, are those who are directly related to one of the craftsmen.
Hosam Ahanafy, one of the tentmakers visiting for the show, said it is truly an art form for him.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Ahanafy said he can spend as long as one week thinking about a pattern before he commits it to the page.
He starts with an idea — either inspired by the mosque or his own imagination — and then uses baby powder to draw the pattern on his material of choice, he said. Afterward, he affixes the pattern to a cotton canvas and begins placing small pieces of material to construct the design.
He spends, on average, two to three months working on a single piece, but is able to make one in as little as one week, he said.
It is a talent that Ahanafy says he wants to pass on to his children. He said he has been doing it for 26 years.
Ahanafy said he loves designing pieces for Europeans and Americans because of their taste for brighter, more vibrant colors.
“I really love this work,” he said. “All of Europe and America love the blue.”
Some people in Cairo enjoy the brighter colors, but often they are attracted to darker colors that are often found in mosques, he said. Each country has its favorite color.
Katherine Rupp, marketing director for the American Quilter’s Society, said it is great to bring the tentmakers’ talent to Albuquerque, an already-established art community.
“We are very excited to have them here,” she said. “There is so much talent here.”
They don’t tend to use colors that other quilters do, she said. Instead of the more common quilt patterns and sewing devices familiar to quilters, the tentmakers’ designs are all proprietary layouts.
Most members of the quilting industry use multiple tools to achieve precise measurements and straight cuts, but the tentmakers do their work by free hand, she said.
“Find (their work) anywhere else, you can’t,” Rupp said. “They are very unique, very special.”
Tarek Abdelhay, another tentmaker and business owner in Cairo, said that while he and Ahanafy work near each other, their ideas are completely separate and distinct.
“Every piece is unique, every color,” Abdelhay said. “If I make the same thing, there is a problem.”
No two pieces are alike, even in his own work, he said. Not just anyone can make tents. There are a few professionals that make tent walls for all of Egypt.
Tentmaking is a way for him to do art while providing for his family, he said. Ideas, for him, come from the mosque and other buildings around his living area.
Sometimes he has people approach him with special requests — especially after his receiving international exposure.
Abdelhay said he has been tentmaking since he was 13 years old and intends to teach his children the same way his father taught him: with side-by-side learning.
Moriah Carty is the assistant culture editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at cultureassistant@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @MoriahCarty
