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 the past 10 years when I was importing their goods through my business African Threads. Their embroidered tapestries are highly collectible and noteables from Queen Elizabeth to Obama have pieces. If you want to add a piece to your collection, I can help you find a piece directly from the group. You can lean a bit more the embroiderers here.
We met this delight woman in Limpopo Province when we toured there last year. Her husband is a famous carver and she is is second wife. My friend Janine Hunt from Bainbridge Island was in our group and both being quilters, we wanted the scissors fabric that the lady was wearing. So she sold it to us!
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. These embroideries tell us about the women's lives. Interested in come to South Africa with me next April? We still have a few spaces on the tour. www.africanthreads.ca
Here is the continuation of my story of shopping in Limpopo Province in South Africa. Scroll down to the previous blog for more photos from this African Trading store that we visited.After we said goodbye to the Shangaan women, a group of Venda women arrived in the trading store in their characteristic brightly striped wraps. Their blouses were made of printed shwe-shwe indigo cotton. The women tie a bright, stripy cotton wrap over one shoulder. The wraps are embellished with ribbon and braids to make the striped design more complex. The last photo below is of a stack of shwe-shwe fabrics.
Wendy bought some yellow striped Venda fabric and others in our tour group are buying sarongs from Swaziland.
This last photo shows a stack of shwe-shwe fabrics which is the iconic fabric of South Africa. I'm planning to write more about shwe-shwe in a future blog. Oh and I want to also tell you about the elephants that surrounded our safari truck, and the leopard we saw, and the women's groups we visited.... many adventure to share with you. More information at www.africanthreads.ca
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.
The Mapula (means Mother of Rain) Embroidery group is from the Winterveld and Kaross , the other group, is from Limpopo Province South Africa. Both groups are featured in the Fowler show. William Worger, who collected most of the pieces for this exhbition, is giving a talk on October 16 at the Fowler, if you're lucky enough to be close by to take it in. Bill is a professor of African history at UCLA.
We'll be visiting both these textile groups (among others) on my tour to South Africa next April. Learn more about this special arts, culture and textile tour here. Here, Bertha and Pinky Resenga hold a Mapula embroidery about community health and water safety, taken when I visited this group about 6 years ago.
This last piece is from the Kaross Group in Limpopo. It is a large embroidered tapesty of the Rain Queen and is part of my collection. Drop me a line if your interested in acquiring any hangings.
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.
I'll spend 2 weeks leading a group of 20 people around some of my favourite places. We'll visit various crafts groups to meet the makers. Some of the groups we'll meet are suppliers for African Threads and are self-help, economic empowerment groups. We love visiting these groups of dynamic women how are using their traditional crafts to make gorgeous textiles, beadwork and copper wire work. Many of them are grandmothers.
Tour members bring embroidery threads, reading glasses, sewing equipment and supplies. We learned that getting reading glasses is one of the most useful of gifts. It enables women to continue beading and embroidery and that in turn means the difference between feeding their families or not. Here are photos of some of the women we gave glasses to last year in South Africa.
For information about my tours to South Africa see http://www.africanthreads.ca/south-african-tour/
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 the Stephen Lewis Foundation's Grandmothers to Grandmothers site. If you're interested in more of these charming embroidered squares, please get in touch with me and I'll send you photos. They range in price from $20 to $40.
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.
The Mapula (means Mother of Rain) Embroidery group is from the Winterveld and Kaross , the other group, is from Limpopo Province South Africa. Both groups are featured in the Fowler show. William Worger, who collected most of the pieces for this exhbition, is giving a talk on October 16 at the Fowler, if you're lucky enough to be close by to take it in. Bill is a professor of African history at UCLA.
We'll be visiting both these textile groups (among others) on my tour to South Africa next April. Learn more about this special arts, culture and textile tour here. Here, Bertha and Pinky Resenga hold a Mapula embroidery about community health and water safety, taken when I visited this group about 6 years ago.
This last piece is from the Kaross Group in Limpopo. It is a large embroidered tapesty of the Rain Queen and is part of my collection. Drop me a line if your interested in acquiring any hangings.
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