12 years ago, South African artist Merewyn De Heer and her righthand lady Nozi, started making clay beaded chandeliers in a small rural community in South Africa. The chandeliers were beautiful and soon began increasing in popularity, so Merewyn approached her community centre and started training local women, turning her team of two into 65!
Hearing about Merewynโs story, Melbourne-basedย South African father and daughter, Phillip Jones and Kerri Wallace immediately took an interest. A huge change of pace for Kerri, who worked as a radio producer for Hamish and Andy and Fifi and Jules, and Phillip, who ran an international food importing business, the three of them decided to form klaylife, an avenue for introducing the chandeliers to the Australian and New Zealand market.
Made entirely by hand, the chandeliers are quite obviously extraordinary, but more than that, theyโre helping a whole community, with many of the local women being affected by HIV. โThe majority of the women who create the chandeliers are HIV impacted,โ explains Kerri. โThey either have it themselves or care for family that do. But it doesnโt define them. Many of the team isnโt able to read or write but have now gained an income and have the means to help provide their children with an education.โ
Not only are the effects of the business on the local community magnificent, the whole chandelier creation process is pretty special. From the initial hand drawn design by Merewyn, to the local ironmonger creating the frame (often with his bare hands!) and finally to the woman making the beads. โMerewyn works with her team (she has taught herself Zulu, theย local language) to hand-roll each bead from raw clay,โ says Kerri. โInstead of sitting in a cold, lifeless factory, everyone sits outside in the sun talking and singing. Once the beads are rolled and sun-dried, they go into a kiln to fire. They are then dip-dyed by hand. The final step, which is the most intricate, is each bead being masterfully hand strung onto its wire frame.โ
Having successfully mastered lighting design, the team now haveย their eye on some new projectsย for 2015.ย โA jewellery and furniture range are currently in the works.ย It is also our intention to put a program in place to help this beautiful community even more. Right now, the bulk of the teamโs earnings go into the schooling, clothing and feeding their children, so if we can help with these costs, 2015 will be a good year!โ
Comments
How wonderful – this is brilliant!