Xhosa Stories

Beads are the material of dreams and stories. Introduced hundreds of years ago by Venetian tradesmen the Africans converted the coloured glass beads to a true artistic expression of their own. The colour scheme and the patterns of beads tell a story. In South Africa the Zulu have their beaded love letters and the Xhosa their necklaces, earrings and beaded applications on dresses and aprons.

Once I attended a show telling stories by beading at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. There the Wild Coast is not far where the green hills are dotted with Xhosa rondavels and the coast line is dramatic.  


©mudunwazib@brandsouthafrica.com
I got my beaded necklace from a dear friend, a Xhosa grandmother. For the annual Christmas holidays she had travelled to her home town in rural Eastern Cape and came back with the lovely present.  Katherine-Mary Pichulik at the Watershed of Cape Town's Waterfront offers a range of modernized beaded necklaces and bangles which are truly bold and beautiful. 






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

South African-French Christmas

Image
For Christmas dinner I am filling up my supply on red wine from the Cape at my favoured wine estate Groot Phesantekraal . Once the owner asked me about purchasing sources for a gobelin from France. Meanwhile, she has acquired the beautiful wall carpet you can see behind me at their wine tasting room. I can only admire the masterful embroidery in the traditional French style. © John Penny The carpet is forming a bridge to my other home in the South West of France. There, in a tiny neighbouring village our friends have just to look out of their kitchen window to enjoy this artwork in stained glass at the village church. In winter deer is sometimes to be seen in some solitary garden just as in the gobelin. The elegant European buck seems to me close to the South African antelopes.  © theodysseyonline.com I admit to fancy English Christmas canes like a child. That's why the jumpsuit with the candy stripes was an obvious choice for wine shopping on a hot pre-Christ...
Read more

Finis Terrae

Image
I didn't discover the end of the world, yet. I only came to Tierra del Fuego , the Land of Fire, which is indeed a sort of Finis Terrae. The Argentinians call it Fin del Mundo . There, I had the privilege to talk with the American lady scientist Natalie Prosser Goodall, who discovered and assembled the most intriguing collection of Arctic sea mammals further to be read about in my travel book Woanders / Somewhere else (for details see www.edithwerner.com ). Some 40 years ago Natalie came to this wild country on a short stint as a student, met a local sheep farmer and stayed. In the town Ushuia the last forepost of civilisation, I met a lady artist who is a descendant of the first inhabitants, the. Yaghan . They were living on their boats and the fires they entertained on their swimming homes inspired the name Tierra del Fuego. For one year I shared with you, dear reader, the endless variety of womens' adornements I discovered  on my travels. Thank you for having...
Read more

Matching Melissa's

Image
Shopping for Christmas in midsummer is always a bit strange. So I need a respite from the Cape’s blazing sun at Melissa ’s. Melissa was the first to introduce the concept of Deli cum coffeeshop to South Africa and she is still the best. Today my outfit happens to match her French style furniture and it goes as well with the sign board of my local fruit market who is wishing me a Merry Christmas. I am no chameleon seeking camouflage but fitting in with your surroundings can be so satisfying not the least during the Happy Season. Some say it is the Silly Season due to all that shopping and merry-making frenzy. Who cares? My Christmas tree in the from of a red poinsettia will be greeting me at home and I am looking forward to a balmy evening with Carols by Candlelight in the semitropical garden of the Shuttleworth family whose son has done a trip to the International Space Station some years ago. May be, he has yearned to watch them celebrating Christmas from above?
Read more