Clay in Class

All Roads Lead to Timbuktu by car, camel, waterway, ink, and air

Lesson plan: Metal Repoussé Appliqués, Plaster molds, Press Mold Jewelry & Ornaments, and Slip-Cast Jewelry and Ornaments with other Timbuktu Inspirations

Presenter: Ann H. Fuerst, Ph.D.

Grade Level: Seventh Grade

The Lesson

A lesson in metals is very appropriate for a study of the arts of Timbuktu. Gold was used in calligraphy illumination of some of the most famous manuscripts of the “ink road”. Today some are housed in the old Ahmed Baba Centre. However, work has already begun on the new library next to the Sankore mosque,which will house more manuscripts than ever before. 2 Also, street artisans weave and dye strands of straw to look like spun threads of gold. This writer watched attentively as metal smiths fashioned pieces of silver in the market, then dipped them in solutions to give them a golden finish. But the “silver’ pieces that caught her attention the most, were the decorations on the doors of Timbuktu’s most important structures.

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