ZiphoR: 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...