Valerie Hearder on the art and soul of quilting

Africa Nova

Textured Tuesdays: I'm just back from South Africa and I have so many fabulous textured images to share!This display was at a wonderful gallery shop called Africa Nova in Cape Town. Telephone wire baskets along with ceramics, beaded dolls and the traditional circular red hats worn by married Zulu women. African icons from Ethiopia and beaded giraffe from Zululand.

San Rock Paintings

Last week we spent our final days in South Africa tucked into a quiet valley near Clanwilliam in the Cederberg Mountains in the Cape. It was a short holiday after leading our 22 day tour. We stayed in a 250 year old classic Cape Dutch converted barn in a citrus orchard. Perfectly quiet, sunshiny days with black velvet nights sprinkled vividly with southern constellations were just what we needed. Clanwilliam is centre of rooibos tea production - it can only grow in this small region of the Cape. I bought a kilogram to bring home.

We spent a day exploring one of the 3,000 San rock painting sites in the Cederberg. The paintings go back at least 8,000 years and evidence is that these small, gentle people lived here for over 100,000 years. I found this wonderful little video about their click language. The San were beaten almost to extinction within 200 years of the Nguni tribes migrating from the north and the Europeans settling the Cape as a water station en route for spices in the East. However San genes are strongly present in the local populace and their cousins, the Khoisan/Bushmen, have been pushed deep into the driest places in Africa: Botswana, Namibia and the Kalahari Desert.


The San left their mark in these fascinating, vulnerable paintings. Priceless treasures, they are our earliest human art and speak of a cohesive culture connected to nature. Many of the paintings are fading due to lichens, weathering time and sometimes senseless vandalism. I found it profoundly moving.

Coincidentally, after viewing the paintings I read an article about how an exploration company wants to frack the remote desert areas where the Khoisan eek out a fragile existence in Botswana. They are to be displaced yet again. Heartbreaking.

The day we die
a soft wind will blow away our footprints in the sand.
When the wind has gone,
who will tell the timelessness
that once we walked this way in the dawn of time?
- from an old song of the San.

In this image a newborn zebra teeters on its wobbly legs. Keenly observed and captured in ocher by a San artist on the rock walls of the Cederberg.

Our accommodations near Clanwilliam. It is said the San taught new comers how to drink rooibos tea.

Bead and Basket Textures

Textured Tuesday: African bead aprons and finely woven baskets. Kim Sacks Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Telephone Wire Basket

Textured Tuesdays: We saw this large telephone wire basket at the African Art Centre in Durban, South Africa. Vibrant colour  and free form weaving.

African Beaded Skirt

Textured Tuesday: Detail of a beautifully beaded Shangaan fertility apron, Limpopo Province in South Africa.

 

Indigo and Clay

Textured Tuesday: Deeply textured hand built pots by a Zulu craftsman paired with indigo dyed cotton. Love being in South Africa.

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 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.

Off to South Africa again!

I'm working flat out to get my To-Do list clear, packing, re-packing and getting more excited about leading my 4th tour to South Africa. We leave next week to spend a month in South Africa. Aside from deciding which cool clothes to take, I'm taking bags of donated embroidery threads and reading glasses/magnifiers. We share these with the various women's craft groups and AIDS Centre we visit on our journey. Thanks to so many who donated threads and glasses for me to take, they are so appreciated by the women we visit.

One grandmother who received a pair of reading glasses said it changed her life. She'd had to stop sewing because of poor eyesight, and that was the only income for her family of 10 she was supporting. Now, with those magnifier glasses, that cost under $10, she was able to start sewing again. This meant food on the table. The glasses were the thin divide between dire poverty and making ends meet.

I have a group of interesting people who are coming with me: quilters, teachers, two chocolatiers, a women's rights advocate, researcher and writers. It is a thrill and an honour to show people around the country that I love so much. We're going to see so many things beside visiting the textile groups. If you're interested in joining the group coming next year, please check out www.africanthreads.ca

Keep in touch with me on Facebook and this blog. I hope to post pics on the road in South Africa.

 

 

Scissors

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!

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. I've been visiting Kim Sacks' Gallery for the past 35 years. I wouldn't miss it. Kim curates the best African textiles, pottery and artifacts from across Africa. I always take my tour group there and this is where we'll be next month. Check out the web site and get a taste of the best craft gallery in Africa.  Here is a full kuba cloth that my friend Rosi Robinson bought from the gallery during out visit.

Textured Tuesdays

The Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, Japan. We got up at 4:30 am to get to the market and see the fresh fish ready for sale and distribution. it was full of pattern and texture. These are fresh octopus.

 

Textured Tuesday

Whalebone vertebrae, many hundreds of years old. I found this at Red Bay Labrador at the earliest known Basque Settlement in North America. the Basque hunted whale and returned to Spain with whale oil. There are 9 holes drilled in the centre of the vertebrae, perhaps made by researchers looking at the DNA of the whale.

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. Intensely jostling, with thousands of Zulu and Indian people shopping in the maze of shops and stalls, it held endless attraction for me, as forbidden things usually do. Here I discovered community in shops, arcades, and markets. Locals willingly taught me how use exotic spices, make chili bites and dhal, how to drape a sari, about Hindu ceremony and traditional African herbs called muti.  Salim became a good friend and we visited most Saturdays in Madrassa Arcade, talking about the Koran, the mosque, music, movies; the usual things young people chat about. Salim, invited me to his traditional Muslim wedding and I was the only non-Muslim there. Durban's Indian market area was the genesis for my love of fabrics, baskets, spicy food and an abiding desire to visit India one day. I still use my market basket like the ones shown in the photos above, for my weekly foray to the Lunenburg Farmers' Market, a world away.

Fabric was cheap and the shopkeepers willing to bargain hard. The Indian community here is one of the oldest and largest outside of India and they formed the backbone of the merchants and infused the country with a love of curry and markets gardens. I'll write more about the fabrics later. For now, I'd like to tell you about the Indian markets at Grey and Victoria Streets - it was a seminal part of my growing up. My world was expanded and enriched by those years of Saturday forays to Grey Street, I loved the rich culture that I found there. The Indian and African market areas endure as favorite places to visit when I take my tour group to Durban each year. It is an essential cultural experience of South Africa.

Last year I met Mrs Govender at a spice shop at Victoria Market. Her shop has been in her family for over 100 years. We discovered a link. Her uncle had worked at my husband's family sugar mill at Illovo a generation ago. We were both delighted with the connection, however tenuous, our conversation helped me pick up a thin thread of connection. I left this city 40 years ago, yet I am stitched into this place.

Fond memories bubble up when I see the palm trees at the mosque entrance, or smell the curries and bunny chow mingled with incense and diesel fumes from the many buses, the thumping loud music blaring from speakers. It is hectic, very hot and remarkably unchanged. A recent New York Times article about Durban curry will give you some insight to my old stomping grounds and explain what a bunny chow is. Be sure to take a whirlwind tour of this area with a taxi driver in a video at the end of the blog.

Here is my tour  group exploring the African clothes sellers market where dresses and pinnies are strung up in curtains of colour and prints.

 

One of the most mysterious areas is the African Medicinal Herbs market. Indigenous plants are used by traditional healers for potions and cures. Often there are dried snakes, lizards, innards and bones in bundles with herbs for various cures - and sometimes spells. The patterns, textures and aromas are strong. I'm looking forward to going back next April.

 

Take a whirlwind tour around Durban with the taxi driver to get a real life flavour of Durban: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNjU3DXMgcY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visiting the Cradle of Humankind

The exciting discovery of Homo Naledi in South Africa is hot news. Homo Naledi is the most ancient human species ever discovered in Africa. The scientific buzz from the discovery is shaking up our knowledge of the origins of humankind.

What good fortune that we decided to visit this very area on our tour next year! On-site archaeologists will guide our field trip to a dig in this area known to be  the richest site for early human fossils, we’ll learn why this beautiful area is called the cradle of humankind.

There is a fabulous video here http://ewn.co.za/Features/Naledi illustrating the Homo Naledi discovery.

If you’d like to join us to visit this area, we still have some space on next year’s South African tour www.africanthreads.ca It is packed with fascinating cultural experiences, arts and wildlife, good food and great accommodations. We’ll drive through a wildlife reserve on the way to this archaeological dig and see lions up close en route! Contact me soon as the deadline is mid-November.

 

 

 

More fabric shopping in South Africa! Part 2

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

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.

Going into this rural fabric shop brought back memories of my youthful fabric buying forays and the start of my love affair with African fabric. Here below, Martha is chatting with a Shangaan woman dressed in Minceka, which consist of two rectangular cloths wrapped around the women's bodies as clothing. Each cloth is draped and tied to the opposite shoulder.

A group of Venda women arrived in their characteristic brightly striped wraps. Their blouses were made of printed shwe-shwe indigo cotton. I’m planning to write a blog about shwe-shwe in the coming months. The Venda 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. Watch for upcoming blogs on more of my adventure in South Africa.

Visiting a Zulu village

In April I led an arts & culture tour to South Africa. I am sitting second from the right with our tour group while visiting a Zulu village near Eshowe, KwaZulu Natal. Behind us are traditional bee-hive huts - such cozy and beautiful structure. We stayed overnight here in a comfy beehive hut, which you can see below, and enjoyed energetic Zulu dancing and great food. Thanks Cindy Bendat for this photo.

I've got a series of blogs planned about various adventure we had, so please stay tuned for more!

 

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.

Related articles

Grannies in Solidarity

Kaross Embroidery

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.

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/

Venice Floats Softly

I just spent 3 weeks in Wales and Italy. Contrasting countries with a curious connection - canals. The trip was my 60^th birthday present from Veryan. Sweet, huh? I’ve longed to get to Venice since I was in Italy  40 years ago. Then, at 20, Florence was cold and I spent long hours in the Uffizi keeping warm and learning about the Old Masters.

We started our holiday in N.E. Wales spending 6 days on a narrow boat barge on the canals in impossibly vivid green fields. The guys maneuvered the absurdly long 55 ft barge at 4 mph and my sister said "Stand back, I'm doing the cooking!", and produced fabulous meals: Welsh roast lamb, Welsh cheeses, meats and cakes and the best bacon I've ever eaten! A happy time messing about in boats…I’m sure I saw Ratty and Mole in the reeds. See my photos of Wales .

Then to Italy, a rich feast of visual delights, like a huge box of truffles. You nibble on each one, wanting more and knowing you just can’t take it all in. Italy album. 

Art, art and more art. I loved revisiting Botticelli at the Uffizi in Florence, still sublime and sensual 500 years later, despite thousands of other sharing the moment. In Venice, we hapened upon inspiring contemporary art shows connected with the Architecture Biennale.  One was Bertil Vallien’s  solo show of art glasswork. Vallien worked with traditional glass artists of Murano Island, who shared their ancient techniques.  The work was set in a palace on the Grand Canal and Venice reflected in the work. The pieces were so deeply moving: we left understanding how art changes one’s life.

We walked 10 hours a day savouring every second. In Florence, the massive Duomo, like a big wedding cake iced in pink, white and green marble, made me gasp. Next to the Duomo was this charming shop-owner who I thought looked snappy in his stripes!

 Venice floats like a dream, quietly. The city is soft, watery light and utterly entrancing. The canals are busy, but without cars, the little streets are quiet.

Then there's Siena. A walled city with few cars. Oh, the colors! So faded and gentle: muted amber, rose, tawny mushroom colours of earth. I want to make a quilt with Siena colors. I think I'll have to do a whole blog devoted to the soft old colors of Italy.

This is the palace that housed the exhibition by Bertial Vallien. The show was called Nine Rooms.