hatched out lately.
Bracelet crocheted with pearl cotton, beaded, and attached to braided leather band
Embroidered cuff on wool felt
Five Rand Squatters Camp Okahandja Namibia
click on image to see how we are making a difference
New Work
AFRICAN COLOR WILD AND FREE
Ahh color . I have always loved it, and thought I was pretty liberated in using it; until I went to live in Africa that is...
African wax prints
In Africa there are no color rules, no color police; every color goes with every other color. If you like it, it goes !
There is a newer housing development in our town and everyone calls it Smarties.
Purple, pink, orange, lime green, you name it and there is a house painted that color.
Home owners association? What's that?
Bo-Kaap Cape Town
I recently come across this great explanation for the source of the African color palette.
(see link below)
I call the first palette our desert palette.
We are all comfortable with this palette I think.
The African color palette derives from two sources. The first is traditional and utilizes earth pigments and natural dyes. This palette is full of ochres, browns, rusts, burgundies, blacks and the whites of raw, untreated cotton cloth and other natural fibers. This is what I call the “natural” African color set.
When synthetic dyes were introduced to Africa a new range of colors appeared. The cloth dyers had not much experience with dyes, so they used each one on its own and at full strength. The result was a set of brilliant, strong reds, rich full blues, emerald greens, and golden yellows, colors never before seen. These form the “dyed” African color set.
Now that's the wild and free palette !
Sometimes I have to caution our artisans, that Westerners are not as liberated in color use as Africans, and selling wild color combinations is often hard to do.
Myself ?
I have to say, that how I think about color, and what colors "go together" has greatly expanded since living in Namibia, but I still have a very long ways to go before being truly FREE .
Fashion
and more fashion
Christie Brown fashion design
hand painted candles
Even in Nature African colors can be intense
PAPER CLAY experiments & how we got started
Here are some fired paper clay heart ornaments we will be test marketing this year. What's paper clay you ask. Check out my guest blog post here:http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4469792236996064066#editor/target=post;postID=8437742941792661520
These are hollow inside plus made of paper clay, so although they are ceramic they are quite light in weight. I'm thinking of making some really BIG beads when I get back to Namibia.
More ornaments .
These are ornament size, but I'm thinking of making them smaller for jewelry also. Ah so may ideas so little time !
Just before we left Namibia a friend helped me make a video about how Work Of Our Hands got started. I don't know who can spare 15 min. this time of year :) but here's the link just in case.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Work-of-our-Hands/111794712202760
Hope you all have a fabulous holiday season !
EXPRESSING MYSELF
It's spring time in the Southern Hemisphere. Cool evenings and warm days. Soon it will be warm evenings and HOT, HOT, HOT days !
This post is confessing that sometimes I'm tired of designing projects to teach and I just want to make what I want to make! Here's a few pictures of my latest, combining love of sculpture with my new love of the potter's wheel.
I CAN'T HEAR YOU
A BEE IN HER BONNET
DAISY BOWL
QUEEN BEE (oops forgot to put in her earrings)
I hope to show these in November in the local pottery show.
Well, back to real work :)
A BEE IN HER BONNET
I hope to show these in November in the local pottery show.
Well, back to real work :)
ANOUNCEMENT
Please contact Helen as the beads are not up on her web site yet.
Also the Beads of Clay's current blog post is about our project. http://beads-of-clay.blogspot.com/
Artisan series: HELENA
IN HER OWN WORDS :
“Work of Our Hands” is a great help. I can make money with my own handiwork, a nice and honorable way to make ends meet. Maybe one day my children have to go to hospital or pay school fees, so I’m saving a bit of my commission for them. The rest I spend on foods and clothes for them.
Although at first, none of the ladies were very good at painting patterns ( under developed fine motor skills) Helena has learned fast , and is now our best detail painter. She is the only one so far who has mastered the zebra pattern. It's time to challenge her to even harder things, (which she hates and loves at the same time.)
Helena is a treasure. She and I have worked together since the beginning of Work Of Our Hands. (about 2004)
As far as I know Helena has never been to school, yet she is very intelligent and talented. Because of the expense of school fees and uniforms ( about USA $30 per term) many parents of the poor, just don't send their kids to school.
At the beginning, Helena spoke no English and all of our communication was through an interpreter. Today, she understands almost everything said in English, and can make herself understood as well.( Ok we have to use a bit of pointing and hand signs, but we communicate well.)
Helena is skilled in paper mache, ( our first endeavor) seed bead jewelry making, ceramic bead making ( our best pattern painter) and lately she has been learning the potter's wheel.
Helena is unmarried, but is in a monogamous relationship, and has 1 son about 5 years old. At least one other boy calls her mom, but it gets confusing as the tribal people take care of children for each other, and it's sometimes impossible to really sort out the relationships. ( Cousins are often called sisters or brothers, plus there is no he or she pronouns in their language, so in English they might say for instance " my brother, she......") which makes it all the more hard to figure out.
Helena looking a bit tired after our week long wheel workshop.
I am unsure of Helena's age 26 maybe? She almost always has a smile on her face and is the first to help when something needs doing around the studio. As you can tell, I am very attached to her ! I feel all the ladies in the project are my African daughters, but I must admit Helena is a bit of a favorite!
She once said " Before you came Meme ( Meme means mother, Mrs. etc. it's a tribal title of respect) I was very bored !!
I have mentioned different times to the ladies that there is a proverb ( Proverbs 22:29) that says something like " if you are skilled in your labor, you will stand before kings. Last month we saw this happen ! Helena was one of two ladies chosen to present gifts to the honorable Mrs. Pohamba, Namibia's first lady, when she visited our center. Helena all I can say is " YOU GO GIRL!" I'm very proud!
How we make our ceramic beads
Please check my guest post at Beads of Clay
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