Colour Blind

Fashion exhibition by textile designers 

Port Elizabeth

Opening 30 September 2016 

We would love to see you there 

BE!!

Everyday with Ayanda

I met Ayanda in Queenstown in 2015. She works at the Chris Hani Craft Hub. What interest me about her was the dress sense. She has become my plus size model

 This is to show you what she wears at work ....

I call it power dressing. Her dress sense shows me how much she loves her work 

 

This is what she wore on Tuessay - Friday 

 

This is Tuesday 

Wednesday...

Thursday...

Friday, casual...

Tell me what you think...

I think she's lovely.

Love what you do… and do it with love

Here I am away from Cape Town for three months. Out in the Eastern Cape doing what I love , Art and sharing my skill with an old friend from varsity Ziyanda Sigabi, owner of YamYakhoYethu. (google it)

Let me first share how I got to be here. A company called The Swallows Foundation (Isiseko Senkonjane) found me last year to work with them on a freelance bases. The Swallows Foundation is an NPO which aims at developing the arts and craft in the Eastern Cape. This year they are running a project called Siyabalisa (we are telling a story) to develop product in the industry of craft work.

sponsored by  

The project started two weeks ago in the Hamburg area for a month. After Hamburg, we go to Queenstown for another month and the third month will be in Ngcobo.

Our project and workshops in Hamburg is divided among 3 surrounding villages, namely, Wesley, Lovers Twist and Peddie.

Week 1: Wesley

In Wesley there are about 18 women working there. Some are weavers from Nolusizo weavers and some do needle felting, they call themselves Siyakhula (we are growing).

Before the first day I was quite nervous, only because I have never worked with older people but it was a challenge I was looking forward to. 

The first week we got acquainted and got straight to work… we painted fabric, knitted wool and designed patterns for weaving…

 

Day one: getting to know each other

This is one of the things we did on the first day… as a designer when seeking for inspiration, CUTOUTS FROM MAGAZINES HELP

Creating patterns for weaving

Knitting

Painting fabric

 

After introducing all these skills, new to some, we divided the groups into the weavers and the needle felting group. Our challenge for them was to implement some of the things we had done in their everyday work. 

Setting up the loom for weaving

Products that are expected to come from the ladies, are bags, carpets and cushions.

Will post products when they are done.

 

 

With the needle felting, the ladies were used to making small farm animals no bigger than 10 cm. the challenge for them is to make much bigger ones and also other products with the felt…

Products to be posted soon

 

 

 

 

Week 2: Lovers Twist

Week two got quite interesting, seeing that we were working with recycled material with the Intlantsi group. They work from a village close to Hamburg called Lovers Twist. 

This is what we did

On the first day we started small. We cut out shapes from plastic containers to make glass coasters. We also made small wallets from milk containers.

Bottle caps: carpet, wall clock and many more

Lamp shade from recycled material.

That's it for now... 

BE...

Finished products coming soon…

Look out for week 3 on Saturday  

 

 

 

 

 

Siyabalisa through The Swallows Foundation SA part 1

Here I am away from Cape Town for three months. Out in the Eastern Cape, doing what I love, Art and sharing my skill.

Let me first share how I got to be here. A company called The Swallows Foundation SA, based in Port ELizabeth found me last year to work for them on a freelance bases. This year they are running this project, Siyakhula (we are growing) which is aimed at product development in the Eastern Cape, where I worked side by side with Ziyanda Sigabi (aslo a textile designer). The company is an NPO that focuses on the development of arts and craft in the Eastern Cape. The Swallows foundation SA is sponsored by the national lottery.

 

This project started in the Hamburg area in the Eastern Cape, focusing on two villages, Wesley and Lovers twist. Where we had to stay for a month. After that we moved to Queenstown for another month and the third month in Port Elizabeth. 

With Hamburg being our first stop, I was nervous and excited at the same time. We were welcomed with open arms and it was just fun from then on. We started with storyboards. Our aim with the storyboards was to show them the different ways to get inspiration for any design. We did this in a form of magazine cuts. This was done to show them the different ways designs are inspired. 

After that we painted fabric even though the ladies thought that we were taking them back to primary school. Some of them couldn't write but were quite good at drawing and painting. With a lot of doubt about the painting and drawing, they started to understand when I showed them products I had painted and we turned them into believers. 

In Wesley village there are two groups of crafters. The one group had weavers and the other group does needle felt. The weavers make the most beautiful mohair carpets ( my opinion). Our challenge for them was to design different weaving patterns because their carpets are/were done in a plain weave. 

The patterns we did were on pen and paper...

The next step was to implement the patterns they had designed. This was the stage where they fought with Ziyanda, saying that the patterns were not going to work out and that the woven lengths were going to be too loose.

As time went by the ladies could see the difference. 

Now... The blocks were woven and it was time to make products. 

And these are some of the finished products...

The other group was my favorite. I think it was because I mostly worked with them. The felters, the funny bunch. 

These ladies made tiny toy sheep with felt, dry needle felt. I loved working with them. So possibilities were endless.

So we first dyed the felt wool with food coloring and vinegar, to add some color to their work. And it just went uphill from there. They had so many ideas and we were at it. Here it is...

I even made my own...

LOVERS TWIST

In the village of lovers twist there are ladies who work with recycled materials. But the issue was the products were not as functional and not durable.

So as a team we wanted to focus on home wear for the recycled material. 

These were the ideas that came to life...

This is going to be a wall clock.

Crocheted plastic bedroom carpet 

Showing one of them to make a table center piece with wire and scraps of fabric.

Chandeliers...

We made quite a few products. 

 The month was great... Learnt plenty. Build friendships and I found the granny in me. 

Next stop: Queenstown

BeautifulEnlightenment was here...

B.E CREATIVE!!!

Siyabalisa through The Swallows foundation part 2

Queenstown My home town.

Before going to Queenstown we knew that we would be working with people who work with beads, wire and weaving. later we introduced leather, because of two young girls who worked with it.

I was happy being there, I grew up in the town after all. 

Queenstownians were the easiest to work with, yes I'm biased...

As I said Queenstown had weavers, three amazing women, who are funny, hard working and quick at getting things done. They are from a village quite close to Queenstown called iLinge. I had formed a very strong bond with them because of their easy going characters. 

Their work was a mixture of woven carpets and baskets

Our challenge for them was to make smaller items which would be easy to sell. We got wool, mixed colours and we went to spin... Old school. Then they would weave on the weaving looms.

With the ladies we were making a series of bags and cushions. These are the beautiful products

And the left: Mrs. Kandisa we call her "makhulu ka Lele" (Lele's granny) and on the right Mrs. Gqola we call her mama Ka Khayakazi (Khayakazi's mom). They are so funny. They taught us a few things about how the past was and also a few Xhosa saying. Love them...

This backpack is definitely my favourite.

Beading had just amazing work. In their group there was a mother and son, two older women and one younger women who is called "makoti" (bride). 

Our target for beadwork was to get young people interested in their products. We tasked the son Siphe, his name, to make a beaded All Star. Young people love that type of shoe. 

Look at that!!!!

The mother and one of the other ladies made a dress. All bead. Just bead.

Then makoti with her show stopper

Mvuso is a 30 something year old guy who has great talent. He works with wire and bead...

He made us laugh everyday with silly comments and sometimes acting like a girl.

With the brilliant work he was doing we thought his work would translate very well as light fixtures 

Here is the "tall Guy's" work

 

Unfortunately I don't have any photos of their work but I will post them as soon as I get them. The work of two young sisters who work with leather. The two girls have amazing talent and I'm sure they will be making waves soon. Before the project they were making belts but the problem is that they were too long but we ended up fixing that. Now the two make leather accessories.

Last but not least, My Favourite. 

Mrs. Msila makes beautiful grass mats. Her designs are futuristic but organic. A lady of few words, just like her I won't say much. So here is what we came up with...

This is soon to be a backpack 

That is it for Queenstown... 

More finished product will follow in a few months 

BeautifulEnlightenment was here...

B.E CREATIVE