Zebra Stripe Beaded Wall Mask, Black and White, Ghana

A round hand carved sese wood wall mask, about 15cm across, beaded in black and white stripes with open slit eyes, a carved mouth and a rim of natural cowrie shells. It is the only one of the maker's masks worked in black and white alone, so it suits a monochrome room or a gallery wall where colour would compete. The stripes curve around the eyes and the brow like a zebra's markings, and the cowries around the rim soften the edge. The maker carves the face in Accra and stitches the glass seed beads on one at a time, which takes a day or two per mask. The back is carved hollow and fitted with a hanging plate and cord, shown in the second photograph. Cowrie shells were used as money across much of West Africa, and they still carry that sense of wealth and good fortune. If you want colour, the maker's Gye Nyame mask pairs red and green beadwork with the same cowrie rim.