You can wash your Karakul
carpet
by using soap and water, as the carpet is made
out of natural sheep hair. Large carpets can be put on a
patio or over a railing, soaked wet with a hose pipe and washed with
warm water and wool wash or shampoo, using only a soft
scrubbing brush. Rinse well with a hose
pipe and leave to dry over a railing, a wall or a
garden table and some chairs. If you choose
a warm and windy day, your carpet should be dry
within 24-36 hours. Your carpet may look uneven on the
floor, which will settle again within a few days.
Where can I find...?
Why doesn't...?
Who is...?
JASSONA - Jeweller's Association of Namibia
FENATA - Federation if Namibian Tourism Associations
TRENABA - Tourism-Related Namibian Business
Association
TASA - Tour-Operator Association of Southern Africa
Namib I - Namib Information & Publicity
Association
1. Abbr. c, car.. A unit of weight for precious
stones, equal to 200 milligrams.
2. Variant of KARAT.
[Middle English, from Old French, from Medieval
Latin quarâtus, from Arabic qìrât,
weight of four grains, from Greek keration,
a weight, diminutive of keras, horn]
The unit of weight for diamonds and gemstones.
It is defined as one-fifth of a gram (200
milligrams = 0.200 gram). It became legal standard
on the 1st of April, 1914, and was and frequently
still is, known as the metric carat. The old
London carat weighed 0.20530 gram, and was not a
legal standard and did not conform to the carat
weight in other parts of the world, which varied
in different countries from 0.1885 gram to 0.2135
gram. [Glossary, Gemmologists' Compendium (6
edition), Robert Webster FGA, revised by E. Allan
Jobbins BSc, CEng, FIMM, FGA, Keeper of Minerals
and Gemstones at the Institute of Geological
Sciences (The Geological Museum), London, 1979].
Abbr. k, kt. A unit of measure for the fineness
of gold, equal to 1/24 part. Pure gold is 24
karat; gold that is 50 percent pure is 12 karat.
[Variant of CARAT.]
Here you can
find additional information about this mineral called Karibibite....
The Ovambo women wore the ekipa button as jewelry. These buttons
are valuable, as they are not made anymore. Around the turn of the
century they were worn as a sign of wealth. The ekipas are
mostly round or oval with a diameter of 5cm. They have also been seen
in a diameter between 1.5-10cm. Sometimes they are square with the
corners rounded off and the top part is round. The boat shape, where
the sizes vary between 1-10cm, is rare. The ivory was carved with
the help of the Ovambo knife (omikonda) to make different
patterns. The pattern showed up better when the buttons were rubbed
with the red olukula powder from dolf wood. The juice of the
aloe plant was used for colouring. The ekipas were then
polished with sandstone to give them a shiny finish. From earlier
literature it cannot be ascertained to which tribes the different
patterns belonged. A leather thong was pulled through a hole on the
flat underside of the button and was worn around the neck or fastened
around the upper arm of at the back of the head. The ekipa was
also worn around the waist, fastened to a broad belt. The unmarried
girls wore them at the back of the head, while the married women wore
them around the neck or on a belt. The ekipas were only worn on
special occasions such as the fertility feast (efundula) or a
wedding.
The Ovambo, Kavango, and Himba women wore the top part of the Conus
Betulinus mussel, which originates from the East African coast, as
valuable jewelry. Today the mussels are extinct. In earlier times the
Portuguese already made replicas out of porcelain as the omba
was rare and was compared to the price of a cow. To fasten it, a hole
was drilled in the middle of the omba and lead was poured into
the hole. They were worn mostly on leather thongs around the neck or
on ostrich eggshell chains (ondjeva) around the waist or the
arm, and were a sign of wealth. It is said the omba has healing
power and gives security.
Married women wore the eengodo around the ankle, and the weight, 4-5kg, indicated the wealth of the husband. The other wives of the man
wore lighter rings, of 1–2kg, because they had to do most of the
work. It is said that the rings have healing powers, because they are
made of copper. The Ovambo bought the copper for the rings from the
Bushmen at the copper mountains near Tsumeb.
The little bottles with fragile pictures made from
sand are a popular souvenir. The artists use a long
rigid piece of stainless steel wire to shape and form
the trees, mountains, dunes and plants within the tiny
bottle. The different colours of sand from from four
different regions in Namibia:
Red sand is obtained from the
dunes in Sossusvlei
Green sand is obtained from a
fountain in Gobabis (Eastern border of Namibia)
Light blue and white sand is
ground marble from Karibib
Other shades of sand are from the
Erongo Region Coastline
