South African crafts: style and social investment

21 Jul 2006 Category: Arts & Crafts, Conscientious Design, Fashion, Features

Creativity counts! Although many countries come to realize the immense economic, cultural and social boost an investment in the creative sector can bring, particularly South Africa must be complimented on acting so well recently! Not only has the yearly conference and exhibition Design Indaba developed to one of the world’s best of its kind, there has also been a lot of change on a broader ground level. The Cape Craft & Design Institute acts as a stepping stone for local crafters and artisans to meet, learn from each other, develop new products and above all find a way into local and international markets.

PingMag was very happy to talk to the director of the institute Erica Elk about why handmade products are in demand, how they try to grow the local creative industries and what their new Centre of Innovation is all about. One thing is certain - they show how design can make a real difference.

Written by Uleshka

Erica, how would you explain what the Cape Craft & Design Institute (CCDI) does?

We are an organization that is trying to facilitate growth in the craft sector and help businesses become more sustainable. We do a lot of different things, but essentially we focus on training programs that help people run their businesses better. We help them develop their design skills, their understanding of trends and how to interpret them - so they can continue developing and innovating their products.

On the market side, we try to help people access markets more easily besides developing new markets through exhibitions and trade shows.

Generally we help people network, distribute information about opportunities and we try to create more awareness of the sector in general. Essentially we grow the consumer base.

In what way would you say, has the CCDI helped the crafters most? How can you create opportunities to showcase their products for them?

I think the crucial point is that now there is a central point of reference for the sector. A lot of the inquiries and needs of people actually get addressed, because there is a place for people to go to. An recent example is that we helped to develop an approach for the SA Toursim stand at the World Cup in Germany (2010 World Cup is in SA). Some crafters got commissioned to create big soccer balls out of a whole range of different materials, like bead, wire, paper… This could happen, because we are a point of reference so it is much easier for the people who are looking for crafts but also for the crafters, because they can access opportunities that as an individual they would never have come across before.

I also think what we have managed to do is to create a space where people feel comfortable. We open people’s views to what is possible and then along the way, they specialize and make decisions of where they want to go next A lot of time people go into crafts because it is the most immediate thing they can think of where they can make money quickly, but we’ve been quite good at creating an environment where people see that actually there are other opportunities for them as well.

For example one crafter has begun mentioning, that he really wants to open a gallery in one of the townships and start working with local artists. Then there is another woman, who said, that she actually wants to open an event management agency.

The CCDI’s database of craft enterprises currently stands at over 680, and you have about about 300 craft retailers. How do you decide who can participate at fairs or trade shows? I am sure everyone would like to go?

We have more than 600 business that we are trying to support, but they aren’t all at the same stage of business development. So we try and find different opportunities that will fit everybody’s needs from a craft market to the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, which is more of a consumer show, or the New York International gift fair or the Ambiente in Frankfurt… We will identify the opportunity, and then announce it to everyone on the database. Basically everyone can apply for the event and then we make a selection based on business readiness. We are trying to spread the benefits to make sure that everyone is getting something from the work that we do.

And what is amazing is that for a lot of people the smallest thing can make a big difference and can help them take that next step … which might simply mean buying more raw material to make more products! I think that we keep impacting on people and that keeps our work exciting and rewarding.

I read your big paper about the South African crafts sector and one of the things you mention is the pressure put on you, to move a crafter from a survivalist to a sustainable mode, which indeed sounds very ambitious. Does that happen at all?

When we started 5 years ago, there was an unrealistic expectation of what is required to make a sustainable craft business, but I think that now people are more realistic and generally understand that it is a slow process. One of the reasons why the craft sector was prioritized and supported initially was that there is this theoretically low entry barrier: you don’t need very high skills, no university degree or whatsoever to make a beaded bracelet, which is why so many people chose to do crafts to make a living. And you don’t need a lot of start-up capital.

While this is all true… we also found that to make a business and make that business make money does actually require quite high-level skills and you can’t aquire these skills in 3-6 months. It is possible to develop them over time, but we just have to be realistic about what is involved and remember that it takes a couple of years to get there.

You also mentioned in your paper, that now is your time to push your products on the local and international markets. Why is it actually, in your opinion, that handmade products are in demand at the moment?

I think a big factor is that people in developed countries have much more disposable income and - I think - they are also getting more discerning about how they want to spend it. If people can buy products and at the same time support development; if they purchase something where there is a story attached to it, it makes them feel better! It is a sort of social investment.

What is also happening here is, that people are making products out of interesting materials like soda cans or recycled plastic, and the way they are combining their materials is interesting as well, because there is a certain South African aesthetic. Products are innovative, quirky and a little bit odd sometimes, but that seems to appeal to people.

Maybe there is an increasing individualism. The brands are so universal and persuasive. Everyone is wearing the same brands, so people are looking for other things which will make them stand out from the crowd. That might be an odd plastic handbag or a handbag made out of newspaper.

If you then stick to the “handmade & human touch”- ideal as opposed to the usual face-less product, your crafts will obviously stay exclusive and relatively small in quantity. Is that your strategy: to aim more at the up-scale market in the long run, rather than trying to offer cheap products?

Yes, definitely! We can’t actually compete with India or China in terms of price or quantity! Our cost of living is too high from a labour point of view, even trying I don’t think is viable. Besides, I think that the high valuable market is a more lucrative for people to get into. And apart from labour costs, the other reason to do so is that we have a fairly individualistic culture as well. There actually are a lot of people who are innovating and creating things and people don’t seem to like replicating and making the same thing over and over again. I think that is understandable - because that is boring. (laughs)

We don’t just want to create jobs, we also want to create good jobs! Jobs that are properly paid and that are interesting. Maybe I am an idealist, but I actually think everyone should be able to enjoy their work and get pleasure from it!

Inventing new and beautiful aesthetics out of recycled materials is something people are more and more open for and African crafts are surly known for that. Developed out of a necessity, would you say that it is at a point now where this necessity turned into an esthetic decision? Or is there a rooted sense of recycling for the environment?

Yes, I think it has become an aesthetic and also a consumer decision, which is I think also another reason why people are interested in the products: environmental conservation.

One of our next big projects is to start looking at this issue of raw materials. How we can find other sources or wastes of other matierials in the city (like off-cuts from the steel industry)which we can get to crafters cheaply so they can make new products? That is something that hopefully takes off in the next months as well. We aim at design that makes a difference to quality of life in our developing world.

Now coming to your new Centre of Innovation which has been operating since the 12th of June this year. What is new about this centre and what are you trying to create with it?

Our motivation for it is to give people a space where they can play. Really play! We know that product development is an expensive and time-consuming investment for all companies - smaller businesses feel it more directly on their bottom-line. So we want to support that process because its so critical for businesses to get ahead.

We have a fabrication laboratory - or FabLab - which is a combination of desktop based manufacturing equipment like a laser cutter, a vinyl cutter and a milling machine, that’s been pulled together in a suite of products and linked to open source software. It’s actually a model that’s been developed by the Centre for Bits & Atoms at MIT - and supported by our Department of Science & Technology - which gives people access to machinery where they can develop samples and prototypes quite quickly and cheaply.

Besides that we will be running workshops where we for example put designers and wireworkers in a room together for one week and see what they can come up with. And we have a weekly Product Development Clinic which provides one-on-one counselling with a professional and experienced product developer.

If you look at your big group of crafters - who would you say is “hot” right now? Who, for example, has joined you at bigger fairs like the Ambiente or the New York International Gift Fair?

We did a joint project together with Aid to Artisans. They brought New York based designer, Stephen Burke, over from the US who worked with us and crafters to develop new products.

Willard Musarurwa is a good example! He was making little wire key rings and Stephen worked with him and developed these wire tables during this program. He is now in a completely different bracket. He’s featured in glossy decor and design magazines, has had to go out and find studio space to rent, and is going off selling his tables all over the world… He still has a long way to go - so far it is only one table - but it has put him into a completely different position.

There are a lot of people… Another group is called Mandela Park Mosaics. Together with Stephen they created beautiful silicon mosaic vases - a world first! A completely unique product - made by a group of women working from one of the townships in Cape Town.

And then there’s Vuyo Nyati (Vuyo Crafts) and Derek Senteni who were both working with recycled Coke cans making small products like hats and bags and boxes and penguins… and now they are making huge lights…

Is there anything in particular you wish for the future to happen?

What I would like to see is that all of these 600 businesses on our database are - in their own way, in the way they choose to be - successful businesses. Making enough money and employing people from making beautiful unique products.

I wish that the need for an institution like ours would have passed, because we would have achieved what we needed to.

Another thing is, I wish for is global brand recognition for South African products. That people from all over the world would look at a product and say: That is from South Africa!

Thank you very much, Erica!

69 Comments

1. It’s nice to see Ping Magazine cover some South African designs. So many interesting things being made here.

   Posted by: nico on July 21st, 2006 at 7:46 pm

2. Just Love it! Most of the items are plain beautiful. Sometimes crafts are just too traditional and these pieces are extremly original and colorful.
   Hope they serve well they’r double purpose!!

   Posted by: pricca on July 23rd, 2006 at 10:31 pm

3. just found this wild site. really strange items all antiques

   Posted by: lost found art on July 25th, 2006 at 4:42 am

4. I know, as I worked with them (African artists), full of energy.
   Their bead work and patch work is awesome.
   And your compilation is good as always :)

   Posted by: Paavani on July 26th, 2006 at 6:49 pm

5. Very interesting! Thank you for taking the time to inform us. This is a fantastic piece.

   Posted by: Alison on August 6th, 2006 at 2:52 pm

6. [...] That all sounds as if you see yourself as a designer with an educational mission. A bit like what the CCDI in Cape Town are trying to achieve by teaching the crafters to take their traditional products to the next level… [...]

   Posted by: PingMag - The Tokyo-based magazine about "Design and Making Things" » Archive » Waste needn’t be wasted - designs by Heath Nash on November 25th, 2006 at 2:55 pm

7. this is so wonderful and i wish i can join the workshop and make lot of great thing..contact me if you need a designer to help out!! Keep inspired us with the work!

   Posted by: yeohgh on December 28th, 2006 at 5:02 am

8. As importers of recycled art such as plastic bag chickens and roosters made from colorful bags and Coke and other soft drink bags made by disadvantages crafters from the townships around Cape Town we truly appreciate these South African crafts and crafters!

   Posted by: Wow Imports on September 3rd, 2007 at 10:08 pm

9. wow how amazing in south africa! i’ve seen and touched most of these products and been to their stalls -the artisans are phenomenal in their skill with materials! go SA!

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10. ff
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11. [...] 'We aim at design that makes a difference to quality of life in our developing world.' from South African crafts: style and social investment, Pingmag [...]

    Posted by: Cape Craft & Design Institute « Design in Africa on September 17th, 2008 at 11:37 pm

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