The wooden dough bowl has always had a part in the lives of the Tarahumara Indian people. In the mountainous region of Northern Mexico, the Tarahumara people have rugged lifestyles and live in rustic dwellings. They make handcrafts, like wooden dough bowls, in order to earn a living. I have always been impressed with the beautiful baskets, weavings, jewelry and other hand-made items fashioned by this Tribe.

It is very interesting that although the women are primarily the ones who make the crafts to sell, the Tarahumara men are very talented working with wood and create beautiful pieces of art using crude instruments and tools. Along with wooden dough bowls, they also carve wooden spoons, figurines and traditional game balls used in traditional foot races. These items made of wood have a simple, unpolished beauty, complimented by the nature and quality of the wood.

You will also find it fascinating how the wooden dough bowls are crafted. The creation of the wooden bowl is started by hand chiseling 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 cutting it with an axe. The wood is then fashioned into a bowl like shape with a machete or large knife, giving it that appealing, rustic style and primitive aspect. This classic style is the same way that all dough bowls have been fashioned throughout the mountain region for generations.

As you learn about these fascinating Indian people, you will learn that the wood 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, an important part of the Tarahumara diet.

They then start by crushing the kernels into a stone bowl 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 mixed with the flour in the bowl and tortillas are made by hand from the mix. Although still used by the Tarahumara Indians for food and cooking purposes, today dough bowls are offered to the public for rustic home decorating and as Indian art for collecting.

You will love using dough bowls for many things. They look great as collectibles, fruit bowls, and when combined with Native style decorating accessories. They are also great when used for art projects when a blank canvas is needed for colorful paintings and other Native American style artwork.

Dough bowls, painted with cowboy and western scenes, are very popular and are a great way to create western style in your interior design. A painted dough bowl works well as a beautiful main feature for any rustic style room, cabin, lodge or ranch style home by adding the natural warm colors unique to southwestern art.

You can buy wood dough bowls online and in various stores that sell southwestern and American Indian style home decor accessories. It is easy to give genuine Native style to your home, or to give your room an authentic rustic look by decorating with a Native Indian wooden dough bowl.

If you like the unique customs and American Indian values, you will appreciate owning a piece of their amazing artwork as part of your interior design. To add true Native culture to your home and produce a look that is truly unique, try adding a genuine native style wooden dough bowl to your home decor.