Kuba Shoowa Prestige Panel

Stepped lozenges, black lines, and pairs of solid diamonds.

Kuba textiles were exchanged as gifts and wealth and worn or displayed on important occasions, and their geometric designs were often improvised by the embroiderer. This Shoowa panel, embroidered in raffia in the 20th century, is cream, crossed with fine black lines that interlock around each pair.

A broad vertical band down the center is worked in tan, contrasting with the paler sides, and touches of plum-brown appear near the edges. A woven raffia border frames it. Twenty by twenty-one inches.

It improvises. So should you.