Zizamele Blog

Zizamele was recently featured in an article on dare (www.dare.co.in).

African handicrafts seek Indian markets.

A small group of rural South African artisans are looking for business opportunities in India

A beautiful display of handicrafts made of ceramics, wood, clay, and bamboo adorns the stall set up by a handful of South African entrepreneurs at the India International Trade Fair in New Delhi.

Among them is Toni Burton, the woman who runs Zizamele Ceramics, one of the many small units that have changed the lives of rural, unemployed artisans by training them to make decorative pieces.

Zizamele’s handicrafts are fairly popular as corporate gifting items. The price of these goes up to Rs 22,000. Burton is now stressing heavily on the marketing of her products, having restricted herself to the home country for long. The firm bagged an order of 1,200 ceramic decorative pieces from the US recently. “Marketing is crucial in South Africa. You will find many people who make beautiful things, but it does not sell. This is because they don’t know how to sell it,” says Burton. 

The story behind Zizamele is that of development and women’s empowerment. Four years back, the South African government sponsored an 18-month course in ceramics handicrafts for the rural unemployed. This was followed by a six-month internship called the Learn and Earn Program. The products made by the rural artisans were well-liked and it made good business sense to sell them at a profit. “I decided to register my company, and the same people have been with me for four years now,” Burton adds.

For entrepreneur Ramadimetja E. Labese, what started as a hobby to make clay models such as jewelry, neck pieces, and bracelets is now a business under the name of Mmupi and Clay General Trade. She founded the firm in 2003 with five people who came from rural areas. Recently she launched a new range in bathroom and kitchenware. She is now looking to supply to big shops and export houses worldwide.

Then there is Zwathu Art and Craft Centre, established in 1996, which exhibits the creations of 41 people from the Venda region in South Africa. Their products include pots, beaded handbags, and tablecloths ranging from Rs. 300 to 7,000.

The secret of quality
The quality and finish of these South African handicrafts is commendable. According to Khathu Tshirhidzo of Zwathu Art and Craft Centre, “We spend considerable time making each product.” Burton believes it is the combination of her Western education with traditional African designs that paves way for innovative designs that ultimately sell. According to her, “We have not just stuck ourselves to traditional craft, we have moved further. But, the African vibrancy is still reflected in our work.”

Tshirhidzo talks at length about pot making, and highlights the importance of burnishing and finishing. She says, “The more you burnish the pot, the more the shine. After burnishing, it will look more glossy. Sometimes, people go for two to three minutes of burnishing, not giving it enough time. And that is where our secret lies, we burnish it a lot. After that we also give emphasis on finishing. We make sure that the end product is extremely neat.”

“I don’t think we can ever be a factory; with the kind of work we do, we will always be a studio. Every single piece we produce is unique, even the animals. What we make is almost an art piece,” says Burton.

To read the complete article, please follow the included link:
http://www.dare.co.in/people/street-business/african-handicrafts-seek-indian-markets.htm

Zizamele is proud to announce that Sisanda Mbana’s 12 Lady Bambanani Bowl was acquired from this years Corobrik National Ceramics Exhibition! This will now be featured in the Corobrik Collection which represents 34 years of ceramics in South Africa. The Collection is a historic record tracing growth and development in the art and craft of clay, with new acquisitions constantly being added.

The Collection is permanently on display at the Pretoria Art Museum, where it is being catalogued and cared for by the curator, Hannelie du Plessis and her staff.

Zizamele has also been selected by the Vice President of South Africa to send Bambanani bowls to her exclusive gallery in Sandton in November!

We recently exhibited at Decorex - SA Handmade Collection 2008!

We brought along two of our newest items which sold instantly!

12 Lady Bambanani Bowl

White on White Candlesticks

The William Humphreys Art Gallery, situated in Kimberley’s Civic Centre, is considered one of the finest art museums in South Africa. At present the Art Gallery concentrates on collecting, preserving and exhibiting works of art which represent the artistic heritage of all South Africans. Apart from its primary function as a museum of art, this Gallery serves the community as an educational and cultural centre.

Ziza Mele is proud to have been invited to exhibit ceramics from two of our artists, Lungile Siphika and Sisanda Mbana.

 

LUNGILE SIPHIKA - The African Family

Lungile was born in Umtata in the Eastern Cape in 1982. He came to the W. Cape in 2004 when he heard about the Learnership in Craft Production that was to be offered at the Noordhoek campus of False Bay College. A meticulous worker with abundant natural talent, Lungile was selected to be part of the Zizamele Ceramics group when the course concluded. He is the only male in the group and makes all his own moulds. He also works as a ceramic assistant for another Ceramic artist in the area. He recently married and is expecting his first child.

SISANDA MBANA - 8-Lady Bambanani Bowl

Sisanda was born in Cofimvaba in the Eastern Cape in 1978. She came to the W. Cape in 2004 and was offered a place on the Learnership offered by Mappp-Seta in Craft Production at the False Bay College in Noordhoek. She, too, was selected to be part of the Zizamele Ceramics group. Soon afterwards she won an award at the Ceramics South Africa Regionals Exhibition 2006 for her intricately painted 6-Lady Bambanani Bowl. Sisanda has a superb eye for colour and has recently started introducing metallic glazes onto her bowls. She also exhibited another exquisite bowl at Rose Korber’s Art Salon in 2007 that was bought by the UK screen legend Sir Ian McKilian. She is a mother of two daughters.

SEOUL SISTERS AND BROTHERS!

My impressions of South Korea

- A Karaoke system in our minibus

- A toilet you needed a PhD to understand (A toilet where the seat warmed up and lit up automatically during the night and had a touch screen for various bidet functions)

- 8 lanes of city traffic flowing seamlessly along with no hooting, road-rage or weird lane-changing

- A Buddhist temple dating back to 974 amongst the skyscrapers of down-town Seoul

- Paper lanterns lining the roads instead of street lights

- Glamorous, charming very generous and friendly local people

- The hi-rise neon billboard alongside my 26^th floor hotel room that flashed the words HAPPY FOREVER day and night

- Shopping until the early hours in complete safety at street markets that opened at 10pm

The SA crafters in traditional dress leading the dancing at the Crystal Ballroom bash held to celebrate SA Freedom Day on 27 April! Seoul sisters and brothers.

I was privileged to be invited to Seoul, South Korea two weeks ago to take part in a Cultural celebration as a guest of the SA Embassy. The trip was organised and sponsored by the DTi in conjunction with the South African Embassy in Korea. Zizamele Ceramics was selected along with Vincent Urbain from Urban Africa and Lulama Sihluku represented Zambane Textiles from the Western Cape. We joined about 12 other crafters from all over South Africa representing a variety of media. Our products - ceramics, textiles, basketry, re-cycled jewellery, wood-carving and leatherwork amongst others had been freighted ahead of us. Our products were displayed and sold in an upmarket mall called Co-Ex in the Trade Centre which was alongside the Olympic Stadium.

There was a mixed reaction to our products. The Koreans are dedicated consumers and love novelty. As they have a very distinguished and ancient Ceramic tradition the Ceramics did very well. However the ceramics that were similar to theirs did not do so well.(ie traditional ceramic processes) They seemed to value the concept of hand-made work but it had to have been created DIFFERENTLY to anything they knew. They were also prepared to pay good money for the items they liked. The embassy had arranged with a local university to lend us their final year business students to help us with interpreting and general tasks associated with trading. These students were bright, enthusiastic and an enormous asset to the show. I offered one of my students a full-time job back here in Cape Town working for Zizamele which he was dying to accept!

The city is built around the Hangang River and divided much like Paris to a North side and a South side. A quarter of the country’s population lives in Seoul - over 10 million people made up of more than 90 nationalities. There are as many cars in Korea as in the whole of South Africa but the country size is the same as Kwazulu-Natal!

As a first event of this nature it can only improve in the years to come and it certainly created quite a stir in diplomatic circles as well as amongst the local South African population who flocked to buy our hand-made craft. Looking around the local shops and markets revealed very little that had been hand-made. The Koreans are renowned for being one of the hardest working peoples in the world and they are at present experiencing an economic boom par excellance. Famous Korean brands are Samsung, LG, Hyundai and Kia. Bilateral trade between Korea and South Africa has almost doubled, from 2004 to 3,4 billion. Local agencies such as the Korean Power Electric Corporation are opening up offices in SA while recently the Korean Inernational Trade Association signed a MOU with counterparts , Business South Africa.

It was to be Buddha’s birthday on 15 May and the city always gears up for this celebration with thousands of lanterns strung around the city. Some of them are enormous and shaped like dragons, elephants and tigers and all made from paper. The locals attach hand-written prayers to the ones that are hung in and outside the Buddhist temples.

The food is wonderfully light and I understood why I had not seen any overweight people in Seoul! The Koreans do not eat milk, sugar or bread but plenty of soups, stir-fries, fish and vegetables - even at breakfast! These are often brought to the table in a stone pot which is so hot the contents are still cooking! Meat is prohibitively expensive and not often seen on menus.

From May onwards the city is ablaze with the national flower - Mugunghwa. This is our Azalea but in huge bushes seen just about everywhere from verges to traffic islands. Exotic orchids are also to be seen throughout the hotels and shops. We were sorry not to have the time to visit the rural areas as these are said to be really beautiful.

All in all a fascinating trip which sadly did not yield the export orders many had hoped for but gave us crafters a glimpse into a thriving first world economy that has evolved from an ancient civilisation.

TONI BURTON

ZIZAMELE CERAMICS

This Sunday 27 April I will be leaving for South Korea with an official trade delegation representing the creative industries (craft) from South Africa. We are staying at the Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul and exhibiting at the Lotte Department Store that adjoins the hotel. The freight left last monday and hopefully nothing has broken - I am also taking some of the animals in my luggage!I have absolutely no idea what to expect and unsure of the reception our products will receive…everyone has been quick to point out that the Koreans will instantly attempt to imitate our work but I feel this is highly unlikely. While they do have a centuries-old ceramic tradition - the bright underglazes we use as well as some of our decorating techniques will be completely foreign to them. Well here’s hoping anyway.

I am meeting up with a Korean potter who I met out here when he did a workshop for the Ceramics Association. I love his work and am looking forward to seeing his studio and hoping he will show me around some of the local potteries. Also dying to see some Buddhist temples and ancient buildings.

There are 18 of us from all corners of South Africa. Wirework, beading, textiles, gameskin shoes and bags, ceramics (not only Zizamele) and various other media will be represented.