ZiphoR: 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...