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.
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
