Use A Wooden Dough Bowl To Enhance Mountain Home Decor

The wooden dough bowl is a true expression of Indian art and Native style living. In the northern part of Mexico, high in the mountain regions, the Tarahumara people have primitive lifestyles and live in rustic dwellings. They sell their handcrafts to earn money for food and to purchase only the most basic items necessary for survival. I have always appreciated the unique baskets, weavings, jewelry and other hand-made items created by this Tribe. It is very interesting that although the women make most of these hand-crafted items, the Tarahumara men like working with wood and create beautiful works of art using crude instruments and tools. Along with wooden dough bowls, they also make wooden spoons, figurines and traditional game balls used in the world renowned foot races. These items made of wood have a rustic beauty, complimented by the natural characteristics of the wood.You will also find it intriguing how the traditional dough bowls are created. The making of the wooden bowl is started by hand carving a piece of native yellow pine taken from a fallen tree trunk. Native American log bowls are made by splitting the trunk in half and then roughly chopping it with an axe. The wood is then fashioned into a bowl shape with a machete or large knife, giving it that unique, rough and primitive aspect. This unique style is the same way that antique dough bowls have been created throughout northern Mexico for centuries.As you read about these incredible Native people, you will discover that the wooden dough bowl has an important part in the Tarahumara household. It is used in the process of hand-grinding corn and wheat to make hand-made tortillas, a basic 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 used to catch the flour at one end of the metate as it is ground by hand. Water is then combined with the flour in the bowl and tortillas are made by hand from the mixture. Although still used by the Tarahumara Tribe for kneading dough and other cooking purposes, today dough bowls are made available to buyers for Native American style decorating accessories and as Indian art collection pieces.

You will find a way to use dough bowls for various things. They look great as collectibles, fruit bowls, and when combined with home decorating items. They are also good for art projects when a blank canvas is needed for beautiful paintings and other Native style art. Dough bowls, painted with southwestern, Native American and western designs and scenes, are very popular and are a wonderful way to add western style in your home. A painted dough bowl creates a beautiful point of interest for any Native style room, cabin, lodge or ranch style home by combining the earth-tone warm colors unique to western artwork.

You can buy wooden dough bowls online and in many stores that sell southwestern and Native American style home decorating items. It is easy to create genuine Native style in 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 age-old traditions and American Indian values, you will appreciate having a piece of their amazing artwork as part of your home decorating. To add true Native culture to your home and create a look that is definitely unique, use a genuine native style wooden dough bowl to enhance great character in your home decor.