| ooden dough bowl is a true representation of | | | | They then begin by crushing the kernels into a |
| items used in a typical Native American home. In | | | | stone bowl called a metate. The dough bowl is |
| the northern part of Mexico, high in the mountain | | | | used to catch the flour at one end of the metate |
| regions, the Tarahumara people have rugged | | | | as it is ground. Water is then mixed with the flour |
| lifestyles and live in modest dwellings. They earn | | | | in the bowl and tortillas are made by hand from |
| money for food and basic necessary items by | | | | the mix. Although still used by the Tarahumara |
| selling their handcrafts. I have always been | | | | Indians for making tortillas and other cooking |
| impressed with the unique baskets, weavings, | | | | purposes, today dough bowls are offered to the |
| jewelry and other hand-made items created by | | | | public for Native American style home decorating |
| this Tribe. It is very interesting that although the | | | | and as Indian art for collecting. |
| women are primarily in charge of making the | | | | You can use dough bowls for various things. They |
| handcrafts, the Tarahumara men enjoy working | | | | work wonderfully as collectibles, fruit bowls, and |
| with wood and create beautiful pieces of art using | | | | when combined with home decorating items. |
| crude instruments and tools. Like the wooden | | | | They are also wonderful when used for art |
| dough bowls, they also make wooden spoons, | | | | projects when a blank canvas is needed for |
| figurines and traditional game balls used in tribal | | | | western style paintings and other Native American |
| foot races. These items made of wood have a | | | | style artwork. Dough bowls, painted with cowboy |
| simple, unpolished beauty, brought out by the | | | | and western scenes, are very unique and are a |
| characteristics of the wood. | | | | wonderful way to add western style in your |
| You will also find it interesting how the traditional | | | | interior design. A painted dough bowl makes a |
| dough bowls are made. The fashioning of the | | | | unique focal point for any country style room, |
| wooden bowl is started by hand chiseling a piece | | | | cabin, lodge or ranch style home by adding the |
| of pine wood taken from a fallen tree trunk. | | | | rich warm colors typical of southwestern art. |
| Native American log bowls are made by dividing | | | | You can buy log dough bowls online and in various |
| the trunk in half and then roughly chopping it with | | | | stores that sell rustic and Native American style |
| an axe. The wood is then fashioned into a bowl | | | | home decorating products. It is easy to create |
| shape with a machete or large knife, giving it that | | | | genuine Native style in your home, or to give |
| unique, rough and primitive look. This unique style | | | | your room an authentic rustic look by including a |
| is the same way that all dough bowls have been | | | | rustic, painted dough bowl along with your decor. |
| fashioned throughout the Sierra Madre for | | | | If you like the unique traditions and American |
| centuries. | | | | Indian values, you will love displaying a piece of |
| As you learn about these intriguing Indigenous | | | | their amazing artwork as part of your home |
| people, you will learn that the wooden dough bowl | | | | decorating. To bring true Native style design to |
| has an important part in the Tarahumara | | | | your home and produce a look that is truly one |
| household. It is used in the process of | | | | of a kind, use a genuine native style wooden |
| hand-grinding corn and wheat to make hand-made | | | | dough bowl to bring great character to your |
| tortillas, an essential part to the Tarahumara diet. | | | | home decor. |