{"object":[{"sourceId":{"label":"Source ID","value":"23861"},"creditline":{"label":"Credit Line","value":"Acquired through the Special Gifts Fund"},"invno":{"label":"Object number","value":"87.012.004"},"description":{"label":"Description","value":"Bamana people call this fabric bokolanfini or \"mudcloth.\" Although some mudcloth is produced on a large scale for sale in local or international markets, traditionally, the fabric is made-to-order. This allows the buyer not only to suggest familiar patterns, but also to commission work from artists known for the quality of their work. The materials needed to make bokolanfini (cotton, leaf dyes, and mud) are all available locally. After women prepare the raw cotton and men weave it into strips, the pieces are sewn together. Women dip the resulting creamy white fabric into a dye bath made from n'galaman and changora leaves and branches. The fabric emerges a bright yellow color which is later washed away. (It is not known precisely why the makers undertake this step; it has been suggested that this initial dying makes the mud-staining less likely to bleed.) Women prepare a solution made from mud collected from pond floors and left to stand for a year. The dark mud is painted onto the fabric, leaving white-line designs. These designs, in turn, are covered with another solution and left to dry in the sun. After repeated paintings and washings, the fabric will remain colorfast. Made in a Kolokani style which typically features sharply delineated lines and high contrast between the dark and light portions, this bokolanfini skirt features the most traditional and, in many ways, most valued kind of mudcloth design. Women lay out the designs freehand and maintain consistent widths for the white lines. These white lines are not painted on; rather, the dark portions are painted, leaving areas of exposed fabric. Today, artists in Mali produce many styles of bokolanfini, such as genre scenes, images of animals, and patterns drawing upon a wider range of earth tones. Although bokolanfini continues to be produced in Mali, most women no longer wear bokolan skirts or wraps. Women prefer imported printed cloth for its comfort and ease in cleaning.Design Name: Banankoro Bolon Banankorois the name for a village meaning, \"below the Banan tree.\"  Bolon means \"alley.\"  Thus, the name literally means \"the alley in the village of Banankoro.\" Visually, the design reproduces the labyrinth of tiny alleys which twist through a Bamana village.  Although \"bolon\" literally means \"alley,\" it can also mean \"way\" or \"path,\" as in \"your life's path.\"  The design has been interpreted as a description of the limited paths open to individuals who must fit into a society based on cooperation.  Banankoro Bolon  also implies that the unification of the many Bolon or \"alleys\" brings abundance.  Banankoro Bolon  is a design that is not widespread in Kolokani, and its complexities result in many irregularities.   These irregularities can symbolize the idea of individual eccentricity within the framework of group solidarity."},"medium":{"label":"Medium","value":"Cotton, mud, n'galgman and changora leaf dyes"},"onview":{"label":"On View","value":"0"},"media":{"label":"Media","value":"87.012.004_d0557a_035"},"title":{"label":"Title","value":"Married Woman's Skirt"},"classification":{"label":"Classifications","value":"Textiles"},"people":{"label":"Artist / Maker / Culture","value":"Yourou Coulibaly"},"primaryMedia":{"value":"https://emuseum.cornell.edu/internal/media/dispatcher/75560/full"},"culture":{"label":"Culture","value":"Mali, Bamana peoples"},"id":{"label":"Id","value":"198866"},"dimensions":{"label":"Dimensions","value":"37 x 54 inches (94 x 137.2 cm)"}}]}