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Nombulelo Ndlovu working on her embroidery
Completed embroidered panel by Nombulelo Ndlovu
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Leonie Marlhebe facilitating the Indegenous Plant Embroidery Workshop
After completing the Laduma embroidery workshop presented in March 2010 in the St Mary’s Church Hall, the centre was invited by Rev Jill Morley, to undertake another embroidery project for an exhibition in the Church.
This would invite a new audience to the exhibition and extend the public definition of what the African Art Centre stands for. The theme of the workshop was “South Africa’s Indigenous Flora”. The embroidered canvases were showcased at the African Art Centre from 10 June 2010 (during the 2010 Soccer World Cup).
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Tholakele Mdakane working on her embroidery
Completed embroidered panel by Tholakele Mdakane
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Siphindile Nkosi working on her embroidered panel
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Nine crafters from the surrounding rural areas of Durban participated in the project. Seven of the nine participants were entirely inexperienced and had never done any embroidery or sewing before.
Two participants were relatively skilled and could assist the facilitator with translating and skills transfer. Over the period of 7 days, participants were introduced to the techniques of appliqué, embroidery and beadwork.
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Completed embroidered panel by Sphindile Nkosi
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Nonhlanhla Zulu working on her embroidered panel
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The first day of the workshop, the facilitator concentrated on introducing the participants to aspects of composition, colour usage, concepts of perspective, the use of a variety of shapes, bead types and stitching. Initially progress was slow; however after a day a two, progress was satisfactory.
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Ntokozo Mseleku working on her embroidered panel
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Nombulelo Ndlovu and Phindile Khanyile, two beginner embroiderers.
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At the outset, participants were uneasy and unsure about the design and were inclined to duplicate each other’s work.
The facilitator soon put an end to this and stressed the importance of creating individual original, products.
By the end of the project, each participant had completed two canvases, 30 x 42 cm each. Considering that the majority of these women had no previous artistic experience, the results were exceptional.
The expectations of both the African Art Centre and the crafters were realised.
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Leonie assisting the participants with design.
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Project Sponsored by
W.K. Kellogg Foundation
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