One day, an interminably long time ago, a little girl watched her mother in awe as she conjured magnificence with silks, thread, a needle and passion! That little girl, supposedly all grown up now, lives in constant pursuit of creative playfulness: dolling up her youngest muse, Layla Rose, with deliberately mismatched prints and the quirkiest of accessories: silk-covered buttons adorned with miniature crochet rosettes, encrusted with glass beads and seed pearls!
A dream I've cherished for a long, long time found it's seed planted in a question someone once asked me over our third ruby glass of pinotage:
"If you won R2 million, what would you do with it?"
With no hesitation at all, I sketched out my vision like this: "I'd buy a house. Turn it into a beautiful sort-of craft-factory with a constantly brewing pot of coffee, a bottomless chocolate biscuit-tin and lots of inspiring nooks of trestle-tables, constantly evolving scrapbook-walls and lovingly dilapidated sofas to nestle in for hours with one's crochet, beading and needlework. Employ a tiny circle of like-minded, talented craftswomen to collaboratively design/create inspired craftworks. Final step: Teach more South African women and outsource work to them, until we can buy another house to convert into a factory - extending the love and employment further and further across the country. We will capture the world's imagination -- and their neverending desire to buy more of our craftwork."
So. That is the plan. Step #1 of 'The Dream' has been completed:
Noni and I found each other by serendipitous chance when my landlady sent her to come polish the ancient yellowood floors in the 1820 Settler's cottage we're renting. Noni's actual Xhosa name is
Nokwayiyo Antoni (my landlady says Nokwayiyo is of
royal lineage!) but because Layla's Xhosa is still somewhat rudimentary, Noni shortened her name to 'Noni' for Layla's sake. And then there is
Nosiphiwo Bill - who arrived one day to pick up a parcel left for her by my landlady when they worked in a ceramics studio together. Both Noni and Nosiphiwo are brilliant stars of women - and as we sat together, enjoying an impromptu tea-party in the lounge, we came up with the idea of forming a collective where we pooled our resources, time and talents to populate the world with deliciousness and - earn a living for ourselves! The sense of connection and sisterhood we felt is the root of our company's name: "oodade" which means 'sisters'. (Pronounced :
'oh - duh - deh' .)
Our first range is a collection of crocheted beanies for babies and toddlers, we've christened 'Junebug'. (After I saw my one sister, Mandy, call my aunt that on Facebook. It just seemed so appropriately, gorgeously cute!)
My mom's mom, my Nanna, is an obsessive and deeply talented knitter - and the big bag of random balls of wool she gave me as a donation to Oodade was split between Noni and Nosiphiwo with the creative guidelines of: crocheted hats for babies and toddlers: any shape, as lacy or not as they choose, crocheted in one solid colour or striped in any configuration of stripes. Two weeks later,and
VOILA! Noni's10 hats are ready for my part of the game: embellishment!
When the
Junebug collection is ready, I'll be posting photographs here for you to indulge in/buy! (Probably a very good idea to
subscribe to our blog to beat the rush!)
My mom's mom, my Nanna, is an obsessive and deeply talented knitter - and the big bag of random balls of wool she gave me as a donation to Oodade was split between Noni and Nosiphiwo with the creative guidelines of: crocheted hats for babies and toddlers: any shape, as lacy or not as they choose, crocheted in one solid colour or striped in any configuration of stripes. Two weeks later,and VOILA! Noni's10 hats are ready for my part of the game: embellishment!
No comments:
Post a Comment