Threads for Africa.
Yes, I did it! I packed all those threads into big zip-lock bags and squished them into that suitcase. They will be given to the 6 textile groups we’ll visit on my tour to South Africa in April. The threads … Continue reading →
Category Archives: AfricanThreads
Bead and Basket Textures
African bead aprons and finely woven baskets. Kim Sacks Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.
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Telephone Wire Basket
We saw this large telephone wire basket at the African Art Centre in Durban, South Africa. Vibrant colour and textur
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African Beaded Skirt
Detail of a beautifully textured Shangaan beaded fertility apron, Limpopo Province in South Africa.
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Indigo and Clay
Deeply textured hand built pots by a Zulu craftsman paired with indigo dyed cotton. Love being in South Africa.
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Visiting the Winterveldt
We are in South Africa and visiting the wonderful embroiderers of the Mapula Embroidery Group in the Winterveld . Mapula means Mother of Rain. We love visiting the Mapula ladies with our tour group. I’ve known these ladies for … Continue reading →
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Textured Tuesdays
This stack of folded kuba raffia cloth exudes texture, colour and energy. Abstract designs are appliquéd on to a background fabic. The colours suggest the essence of Africa. I spotted these fabrics when we visited Kim Sacks Gallery in Johannesburg on our last tour to South Africa.
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Textured Tuesday
I photographed this detail from a piece of handwoven raffia cloth in a shop in South Africa. Decorated with beads and cowrie shells. Some of the squares are dyed with indigo. It has a kind of pom-pom edging.
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Stitched into this place.
Today, when some in our world seem hungry to divide people violently along racial and religious lines, I find myself thinking about growing up in Apartheid South Africa. In Durban in the late 60’s, I was not supposed to go alone to the Indian Market, in the heart of the city. Here I found community and my world grew bigger.
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Judy’s Journal: I feel as if I know her
Judy Martin wrote a lovely piece about some embroideries I’d bought on my recent tour to South Africa. These highly expressive pieces were made by women in the Isipethu Sewing Collective in KwaZulu Natal. We visit this group each time we take our tour to South Africa.
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More fabric shopping in South Africa! Part 2
I’ll write more about the various adventures we had in South Africa including more in depth information about shwe-shwe fabric pictured above, which is the iconic fabric of South Africa. I want to tell you about the herd of elephants that surrounded our safari trucks, the leopard we saw and the Zulu baskets and beadwork!
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Fabric Shopping in South Africa.
When we visited Limpopo Province this past April, our tour group was thrilled to stop at an African trading store. Three generations of an Indian family had owned the store supplying fabric to the various groups in the area: the Shangaan, Tsonga and Venda.
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Visiting a Zulu village
In April I led an arts & culture tour to South Africa. Here I am, second from the right, sitting with our tour group while visiting a Zulu village near Eshowe, KwaZulu Natal. Behind us are traditional bee-hive huts.
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Embroidery Bearing Witness
On September 7th, a fascinating exhibition of South African embroideries will open at the Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles. It’s called, Bearing Witness: Embroidery as History in Post-Apartheid South Africa It will feature the work of two groups that I’ve been closely connected to over the past 10 years through my fair trade imports, African Threads and my cultural tours to South Africa.
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150 pairs of Granny Glasses
Thanks to the Lunenburg Rotary Club and the Tantallon Bay Grans for donating 150 pairs of reading glasses. This wonderful pile of glasses is headed to South Africa with me next week. The glasses will be given to women artisans in South Africa.
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Grannies in Solidarity
This hand embroidered square was made by the Intuthuko Sewing Group from Etwatwa Township near Johannesburg. There is wonderful solidarity between Grandmothers in Africa and Canada. To learn more about the remarkable Grandmothers Campaign to support African Grannies, check out … Continue reading →
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Ndebele village Scene
Intuthuko comission tapestry full size
It’s January, and freezing cold here in Nova Scotia. So when this tapestry arrived from South Africa the other day, it felt like a gift of sunshiny heat.
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Art of the Grandmothers
Bonnie Samuel asked me to write a guest blog about one of the stitchery groups that I buy textiles from in South Africa. I chose to talk about Isipethu – Zulu for “going to the fountain” – as this group makes the most fascinating collages in appliqué and embroidery.
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Soccer and those vuvuzelas!
Love those vuvuzelas no matter how loud they are – gotta love that soccer!
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Mapula Cloth by Elizabeth Mogano
> Mapula Cloth by Elizabeth Mogan Originally uploaded by African Threads I’ve just returned from 6 weeks in South Africa. It was a truly rich and fascinating time. Veryan and I visited 9 women’s groups in various parts of S.Africa including … Continue reading →
