Use A Wooden Dough Bowl For Beautiful Southwest Home Decor by Craig Chambers

The wooden dough bowl has always had a part in the lives of the Tarahumara Indian people. In the northern part of Mexico, high in the mountain regions, the Tarahumara people have rugged lifestyles and live in humble dwellings. They support themselves and buy needed items by selling their handcrafts.

I have always appreciated the beautiful baskets, weavings, jewelry and other hand-made items produced by this Tribe. It is fascinating that although the women are primarily in charge of making the handcrafts, the Tarahumara men like working with wood and make exquisite pieces of art using primitive style, simple tools.

Along with wooden dough bowls, they also make wooden spoons, figurines and traditional game balls used in traditional foot races. These wooden items have a simple, unpolished beauty, heightened by the natural characteristics of the wood.

You will also find it interesting how the traditional dough bowls are created. The making of the wooden bowl is started by hand carving a piece of pine wood taken from a fallen tree trunk. Native American log bowls are made by cutting the trunk in half and then roughly chopping it with an axe.

The wood is then chiseled into a bowl like shape with a machete or large knife, giving it that one of a kind, rugged and primitive design. This traditional style is the same way that antique dough bowls have been made throughout the Sierra Madre for generations.

As you learn about these fascinating Indigenous people, you will find that the wood dough bowl is a very useful item in the Tarahumara home. It is used in the process of hand-grinding corn and wheat to make hand-made tortillas, an important part of the Tarahumara diet. They then start by breaking the kernels between a smooth stone and a tapered bowl-like stone called a metate.

The dough bowl is then placed at one end of the metate to catch the corn or wheat flour as it is ground by hand. Water is then added to the flour in the bowl and hand-made tortillas are made from the mix. Although still used by the Tarahumara Tribe for kneading dough and cooking purposes, today dough bowls are made available to buyers for Native American style decorating accessories and as Indian art for collection.

You will find a way to use dough bowls for a number of things. They are great as collectibles, fruit bowls, and when combined with rustic decorating items. They are also great when used for art projects when a blank canvas is needed for western style paintings and other Native American style artwork.

Dough bowls, painted with southwestern, Native American and western designs and scenes, are very popular and are an exciting way to add western style in your home. A painted dough bowl creates a beautiful point of interest for any rustic style room, cabin, lodge or ranch style home by adding the rich warm colors characteristic of southwest artwork.

You can buy wood dough bowls online and in many stores that sell southwest and Native American style home decorating accessories. It is easy to give genuine Native style to your home, or to give your room an authentic rustic look by simply hanging a southwestern, painted dough bowl on the wall.

If you like the unique culture and American Indian way of life, you will enjoy having a piece of their beautiful artwork as part of your interior design. To bring Indian style design to your home and bring about a look that is truly unique, use a genuine native style wooden dough bowl to enhance great character in your home decor.

Craig Chambers is the director of Mission Del Rey and offers free information online about choosing a wooden dough bowl for rustic decor. For more information visit http://www.missiondelrey.com

Article Source: http://www.earticlesonline.com/Article/Use-A-Wooden-Dough-Bowl-For-Beautiful-Southwest-Home-Decor/321114

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