8 GREAT spots to buy handmade in the Cape

Imiso ceram­ics

Nothing has quite the appeal of hand­made when it comes to gifts and extraordin­ary products for around your home. Particularly as these days, hand­made no longer means  your aunt pro­duced it in wool that she had lying around the house. Nowadays, hand­made comes very closely asso­ci­ated with terms like 'green', 'eth­ical' and 'soph­ist­ic­ated', and one is sur­roun­ded by slo­gans that include 'the hand­made pledge!' and 'I buy hand­made' and indeed, there are now so many dif­fer­ent unique gifts and products in the craft world that hand­made has taken on a life of its own.

In the Cape, craft shop­ping for hand­made is BIG. There are shops crawl­ing out of the wood­work, many of them boutique-style, upmar­ket show­cases of the diversity, fun and cre­ativ­ity of craft pro­du­cers in this coun­try, with vibey, soph­ist­ic­ated names that pre­pare you for select craft objects, rather than the sym­pathy products that used to pass as hand­made craft. These boutiques and shops play a big role in driv­ing job cre­ation and pla­cing designer goods on the mar­ket that more and more people are too happy to buy, in pref­er­ence to the plastic drivel that has inund­ated our mar­ket from places like China.

Cape Town City Bowl

Monkeybiz

Head into the Cape Quarter and Bo Kaap, and there are a couple of shops that are a must-see. Monkeybiz Bead Project, is a non-profit organ­isa­tion that provides self-employment for bead artists and makes sure that all profits go right back into the com­munit­ies from which the crafts came. Admittedly the objects on offer are not of the same soph­ist­ic­a­tion of those at Imiso Lifestyle and Streetwires, but then you're sup­port­ing an excel­lent cause, and acquir­ing a couple of bead dolls for children's birth­days or to dec­or­ate the Christmas tree is a real 'feel good' exper­i­ence. They also have an online shop, which makes it even more con­veni­ent — see http://www.monkeybiz.co.za/ or visit them at 43 Rose Street, Bo Kaap, 021 426 0145

Imiso ceram­ics, (see pho­to­graph above) also in the Cape Quater in Green Point are quite plainly breath­tak­ing in their sim­pli­city. The col­lec­tion of ceramic cups, bowls, mugs, vases, plates, and once-offs are gor­geous. And it isn't sur­pris­ing to learn that the team behind these aes­thetic arte­facts are already, just four years after start­ing out, export­ing to Paris, New York, Austria and USA. Imiso, which means 'tomor­row', is the love child of Andile Dyalvane, Abongile Madabane, Zizipho Poswa and Mlamli Charles Mayosi – hip, trend­set­ters of the cre­at­ive craft eco­nomy. Their brand of ceram­ics is at once dis­tinct­ively African with a unique­ness that is refresh­ing, but also inspir­a­tional. I can highly recom­mend you acquire some of their wares before they become too expens­ive to afford. Visit their shop, if only to watch them mak­ing their products on the premises. Visit them at Shaft 034, The Square, Cape Quarter, Green Point 021 421 1071

Streetwires

Streetwires Shop and Studio is the place to find wire art and craft in Cape Town. They've been around since October 2000, intro­duced their sig­na­ture Nguni range in 2004, and their founder, Patrick Schofield, won a 'Social Entrepreneur Award' for the pro­ject in 2008. Their offices are a col­our­ful com­bin­a­tion of work­shop, design team, and shop, and it's excit­ing to see how the pro­ject works, as well as a great place to pick up a fairly traded piece of local hand­made wire art. Visit them at 77 Shortmarket Street, Cape Town Central, 021 426 2475

Cape Originals in Bree Street stock Avoova, and if you haven't already dis­covered this range, you need to head down here, if noth­ing but to ooh and aah. Avoova is a range of ostrich egg­shell designs where the shards of the broken egg­shell, dis­carded by local ostrich breed­ers, are beau­ti­fully used in indi­vidual designs. There is a real African feel to these con­tem­por­ary func­tional art pieces, that include pic­ture frames, bowls, vases, mir­rors, lamps, and plates. Bangles are also an option and would make gor­geous birth­day gifts for girl­friends, whilst their bowls and orna­mental boxes are well worth the invest­ment for some­thing like a wed­ding anniversary. At the back of your mind, bear in mind that the pro­duc­tion of these craft items is one of the biggest employ­ers of the formerly dis­ad­vant­aged com­munity in Prince Albert. Visit them at 97 Bree Street, cnr Shortmarket, Cape Town Central, 021 422 1620

African Home in Caledon Street, is also well worth a visit, if for noth­ing other than their incred­ible gal­van­ised steel wire candle hold­ers. Their range of pot­tery, table­ware, garden fur­niture, tex­tiles, wire­work, décor items, accessor­ies, jew­ellery, African dolls, bas­kets and woven items (par­tic­u­larly the col­our­ful sisal bas­kets), goods made from recycled pas­tic, includ­ing some to-die-for fluffy hand­bags, tin can work and more is a trib­ute to local com­munity crafters, fairtrade, envir­on­ment­ally aware and stocked with poten­tial gifts for just about every­one. Visit them at 41 Caledon Street, Cape Town Central, 021 461 1700

Outside of the City Bowl — Head out of Cape Town and there is almost as much variety.

by Lesley Charnock

The Montebello Design Centre in Newlands is a won­der­ful col­lec­tion of design­ers and artists, from jew­ellers to paint­ers, film makers and cre­at­ors of books. It's not only a beau­ti­ful set­ting, loc­ated in farm build­ings of his­toric value, but it also offers a green­house and nurs­ery, a forge, over twenty arts and craft stu­dios and work­shops, and a couple of res­taur­ants for wel­come cups of tea or lunch. Jewellery stu­dios include Sitali Jewellers, there are two ceramic stu­dios, garden fur­niture is pro­duced here, and the Mielie Shop, which stocks a ser­i­ous col­lec­tion of arts and crafts rounds off the pic­ture. And all of this under a can­opy of rich trees. Visit the Centre at 31 Newlands Avenue, 021 685 6445. (Photograph: © Artist Lesley Charnock — Find Lesley at Montebello)

The Kalk Bay Modern is a beau­ti­ful gal­lery above Olympia Café in Kalk Bay. Whilst the gal­lery dis­plays exhib­its of local artists, it also show­cases and sells local crafts from del­ic­ate ceram­ics, vibrant tex­tiles, or play­ful, funky jew­ellery — it's all there. And whilst a little on the pricey side, you'll always find some­thing just 'beau­ti­ful' here. Visit them at 1^st Floor, Olympia Building, 136 Main Rd, Kalk Bay

At Africa Silks, in Stellenbosch, you will find a won­der­ful col­lec­tion of hand­made silk products – from duvets, through scarves, to cloth­ing. The silk is hand­made in South Africa from mul­berry silk­worm and wild silk of the Mopani worm, both labour intens­ive pro­cesses. The cocoons are col­lec­ted in the Vryburg area, and in Namibia, where a job cre­ation pro­ject runs for unem­ployed women. And the products are gor­geous. The thought of sleep­ing under a silk duvet with one's head on a silk pil­low is just heaven, and so are the prices, but they're quite under­stand­able, given the pro­cess. Visit them at 36 Church Street, Stellenbosch, 021 882 9839

Also don't for­get:
The Gift Store, in Kenilworth Centre
The Potter's Shop & Studio in Kalk Bay
Izibini Life Lounge in Hermanus
Philani Weaving in Khayelitsha

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