Beloved Beadwork finally has it’s own shop sign! We are so excited, and feel so proud of our shop front.
It was made by the ever talented Right Mukore and his friend Wanda.
Right is a self-taught sculptor of note. His pieces often take my breath away, and his acclaim is growing world-wide as more and more people discover his talent. Right is also based at Montebello, just a stone’s throw from Beloved Beadwork.
We’re so pleased with our sign. Thanks Right!
Well, sorry for the silence. I’ve learnt my lesson – having a four-day break was great, but I’ve been playing catch-up ever since. Still, much of the busy-ness now is Christmas sales, yeay! So no complaining here.
The conference in KZN was, as anticipated, wonderful. In fact, it was even better than I expected. Not only was it a chance to discuss, learn, discover and debate about beadwork with some of the foremost minds in the field, it turns out they are utterly lovely people too!
Before I headed up to Pietermaritzburg for the conference though, I stopped off in Durban to buy beads and visit the much lauded Phansi Museum.
I went to Phutumani Bazaar and N D Patels, and found, to my joy, lots of new colours and finishes of seed beads.
Max at the Phansi Museum was very welcoming, and it was so nice to see him the next day in Pietermaritzburg when he opened the beading conference and the UKZN Centre for Visual Art’s beadwork exhibition.
The conference itself was, as I said, wonderful. At some point I will sit down and write a more detailed reflection, though that said, a small publication will be made containing all our papers in the new year, and I’ll be sure to tell you about it when it comes out.
(here Professor Sandra Klopper, wearing a newly acquired piece of Beloved Beadwork, looks amused at Professor Juliet Armstrong as she sports a 2010 themed hat from the Phansi Museum collection)
What was particularly gratifying for me was seeing people’s reactions to our work. For most there, it was the first time they had come across Beloved Beadwork, and many expressed real excitement and interest in our work.
If I am honest, I was sad it was all over so quickly. But so glad that I went. What a treat!
Tags:
Beadwork Conference, Centre for Visual Arts, Durban, Phansi Museum, Pietermaritzburg, UKZN
…or, in English, teaching each other songs in our languages!
At Beloved Beadwork we are proudly, and I mean proudly Pan-African (and a token European, ie me!). I felt a real sense of pride in that philosophy today, when E came in and reported that she had taught the Xhosa song she learnt at work to her (largely Congolese) church, and they loved it.
She asked for more, and I found recordings from Freedom Is In Your Hand in my computer. My own journey to South Africa started with singing Xhosa choruses in an old church on a tiny Scottish island aged ten, and today I revelled in music’s ability to unite people.
A joyous day.
I’ve been busy sprucing up the shop. It’s looking lovely, even if I say so myself. The pieces are now arranged by colour, and one special cabinet is just for indigo pieces. Next to it we’ve put a small quote by Patch, or Patricia Schonstein as she’s more formally known, from her latest novel, The Master’s Ruse. Here it is:
Once, refugees from the north brought to our region the skill of dying and printing. They were settled beside the sewerage ponds and there seeded plants that flourished like weeds, the leaves of which, when harvested and pounded, yielded a blue dye the colour of cobalt, rich and magnificent. For some years these people salvaged cloth and discarded garments from the dumpsites. These they cut into squares and strips, stitching them together into wide lengths, dying them, beating them with reeds and then dying them over and again so that the fabric acquired a burnish to it. They sold this material through freeslaves who had hawking licences and it became popular among the better classes as hangings and drapery.
The blue-dyers’ industry grew and they accumulated some degree of wealth. But it was soon recognised that, with this financial independence, there might come demands for freedom. It was feared this would engender aspiration among other newslaves.
One day a troop of mounted soldiers surrounded the dyers, striking them down with whips and trampling those who resisted te attach. Guards overturned the vats and their cerulean contents ran into the earth silently and with remorse, mixing with the brown and black of the ground, but finding no affinity there. Later, toxins were poured onto the blue-bearing plants and they never grew again. So the cloth became a symbol of the struggle. It came to symbolise hope and redemption and both newslaves and freeslaves always wear a piece of it, no matter how small, even just a strip knotted around a waist.
A passage from the novel The Master’s Ruse, by Patricia Schonstein
I’ve just realise that this post was never properly published! I hope this will explain why I’ve been quiet!
I am so super excited I barely know what to do with myself!
I’m off to Pietermaritzburg for a two day beadwork conference at the University of KwaZulu Natal Centre for Visual Arts. Yes, I said a two day beadwork conference. In KZN. I am almost melting with anticipation. This is, believe it or not, the first time I’ve travelled alone in South Africa, and I’m really very excited.
I’m flying tomorrow to Durban, staying the night in Morningside, then going on a bead hunt! Three bead suppliers, the Phansi Museum, and the African Art Centre. If there’s time I may even try to make it to the BAT Centre. Then on the bus up to Pietermaritzburg. I’m even giving a half hour talk about our business on Thursday. Then Durban for the night, and an early morning flight in time to join in the festivities of the FIFA final draw. Ooooh yeay, what a great week.
In other news, big, BIG thank yous to Brandie of Out and About Africa for her lovely post about Beloved Beadwork. What kind words. I hope we can live up to your expectations Brandie!
Tags:
African Art Centre, BAT Centre, Bead suppliers, beadwork, blogs we love, KwaZulu Natal, KZN, out and about africa, Phansi Museum, World Cup
New Dreamweaver Playground
On Saturday, Radesh (my man), Janine (Radesh’s collegue), and myself, payed the lovely Nolundi of Mielie fame a visit at her home in Harare, Khayelitsha (no, not the other Harare!). The purpose of the visit, other than to see Nolundi of course, was to see the brand new, architectural-award-winning public square that was recently built there. And wow, was it amazing. For those of you far away, Khayelitsha is a ‘township’ on the edge of Cape Town, housing around a million people. Conditions vary greatly – from lovely two storey houses, to wobbly shacks. There are some major public health and safety issues which affect the people who live there. In all the years I’ve worked in Khayelitsha, I struggle to think of a public space which has been so well thought out and is so dignified as the new square.
Here are some more photos:
A football coach intersperses football lessons with life skills education.
Previously just a dusty patch of land that people walked through, the square now boasts two small public buildings (one funded by FIFA), a state of the art, organic kids playground, an astroturf football pitch, two small public grass fields, and excellent lighting.
A new building, featuring locally made mosaic work.
It was so pretty!
Football for Hope Centre, so new they're still making the sign!
Nolundi showing us round.
The square. Just gorgeous.
We left with uplifted spirits, and the firm conviction that if you’re going to do something, you should do it properly. The architects and builders responsible for this project certainly did. Wow.
Tags:
architecture, khayelitsha
Last night was my respite night. I struggle to imagine a more perfect evening – swimming at Sea Point with my lovely man, dinner with two gorgeous friends, watching No1. Ladies Detective Agency on DSTV together as the sun sets past Table Mountain, then closing the shutters and falling asleep watching Jamie Oliver. I woke up to the sound of traffic, and it suddenly struck me how much I miss that sound. I always grew up next to big main roads, the sound of trucks and trundling cars calms me, strangely enough.
I call it respite because, at heart, I’m a city girl, but I live in the sleepy suburbs. Recent drama with house break ins and the stresses of trying to sort out our huge garden, have made me resent my neighbourhood a little. So I sojourned to J’s central city apartment. What bliss!
On my walk to the bus stop this morning, I went past Lola’s, and to my horror it was closed, with major renovations going on inside! Lola’s was my favourite haunt when I lived in Long Street 9 years ago. Easily the campest place on earth, it served good liquor and vegetarian food. Yum.
I hope it’ll still be Lola’s after the renovations. But I’ve got the feeling it won’t be. I guess this is the price we pay for getting the 2010 World Cup, the city is changing so fast I can barely keep up!
A lovely young woman called Taryn popped by the shop the other day and instantly recognised a friend, one of Beloved Beadworks beautiful volunteer models, Danielle, in one of our pictures. I showed her some more from the shoot, and realised how absurd it is that we haven’t published more of the photos yet!
Danielle is not only gorgeous, but she’s also a true friend and an incredible woman. The pictures below are of her and her daughter, Trinity, who is clearly becoming just as thoughtful, beautiful and self-possessed as her mum! They are, of course, wearing some lovely Beloved Beadwork goodies!
thinking
whispering
happy
Stay tuned for some more never-before-seen shots from the collection, as well as a glimpse of the photographer!
I recently had reason to photograph everything we have in the shop! It was a lot of fun. Here’s my favourite:
Pretty Beaded Stone Rings
I love our beaded stone rings. They’re so much fun, and just a little OTT, because why not?! Can you believe we only use beads and thread?
Today is a happy day at the shop, as we’ve finally got round to adding finishers to a lot of our stock, and it’s looking beautiful as it goes onto the shelves.
I hope you’re having a happy thursday 
Tags:
beads, beadwork, pretty, shop, stone rings
I think we must have posed quite a conundrum to the people driving by. ‘What could be making those two women look so wistful?’ they must have thought to themselves, as they saw our eyes drift into the middle distance, as we drifted along the road from Newlands to Claremont.
Laurence looking deep in thought!
Well ladies and gentlemen, much as we may proudly run a business based on principles of social justice and liberation, much as we like to discuss the important political stories of the day, much as we take our work very seriously… we were talking about breadmakers! That’s right. Laurence and I took a few moments out of our day of retail and wholesale, staff management issues and supply needs, decision making and plan drafting, to dream of one day owning a magic, breadmaking machine of our own.
Me looking a little bit blissed out!
If ever you needed proof that L and I are fundamentally, at heart, totally and utterly middle class, then here it is! When I first heard of breadmakers, it took me a while to wrap my head around the idea that such a small machine could make a loaf of bread from start to finish, and L hadn’t realised that this was the case until I explained my ideal kitchen appliance to her today. Laurence is a waffle maker of note (even her children’s teachers are jealous of their packed lunches!), and she was clearly making a mental list of recipes she’d try out.
Heaven
Anybody listening to the conversation might have thought it was absurd, but we were in heaven, imagining the smell of fresh bread greeting us and our families in the morning. I guess behind our graduate, multi-lingual, headstrong migrant, business-like exteriors, there’s a little bit of a housewife in all of us!
Have a good weekend everyone. I’ll be teaching an exciting little class at Beloved Beadwork tomorrow, taking B to a Hannah Montana themed birthday party, and enjoying a relaxed sunday in the garden.
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