I Z A CRAFTS = Xhosa Crafts From The Eastern Cape

Tembeka, The Owner Of Iza Crafts In East London

Tembeka is a 70 years old Xhosa woman and proud of it. She is a widow since a couple of years and three of her children are still alive. She had five children. Tembeka is the owner of Iza Crafts, a business, that designs and creates Traditional Xhosa Crafts Products originating from the Eastern Cape in South Africa.

Iza Crafts - Xhosa Crafts From The Eastern Cape.

Tembeka lives in Mdantsane in NU 3 and it was there that she started her business. Her first workshop was located in the township. 

Nowadays her business can be found in an old colonial house in the Quigney suburb in East London, a suburb that has been labeled multicolored by the old mostly white residents because of the great influx of students that study at several campuses and live in student residences.

Iza Crafts In The Quigney Suburb

Tembeka knows everything about the difficulties involved in running a successful business, as a black woman in South Africa, in a small town and in a region, that is not a tourist hub. Iza Crafts is more than a decade old and has gone through several phases.

"At a time my business had 15 employees, who were working for me full time around the clock, she says, but several factors brought us down to three people. I have two ladies and a driver now."

"In the beginning, when we started, we were very keen on government contracts and the government gave us a lot of work because of the quality of our work. We designed corporate gifts for functions, conferences and workshops in great number but the problem was that the government never paid us on time. They kept us waiting for months but we already had incurred the expenses for the material needed for the products, Tembeka explains, so we are not looking so much for government contracts anymore".

The global recession has done its part as well to reduce her business to a small scale business.

Traditional Shwe Shwe Fabric has been washed and is drying outside in the sun on the street in front of her shop

 

But Tembeka changed her strategy and she never gave up. For an elderly woman who uses only a cell phone to run her business and does not know how to work with the Internet, she can be considered street wise and she definitely has an inborn sense of understanding how to stay alive in business during difficult times. 

Tembeka of Iza Crafts on the phone with customers

After her business had gone through a lot of difficulties she concentrated on private costumers. She is now one of the experts in sewing genuine traditional Xhosa wedding dresses. Tembeka has received hundreds of wedding photos from her clients, expressing their gratitude with the images of their wedding day for the beautiful attire she has done for them.

Traditional Shwe Shwe Fabric produced by Da Gama in East London

Tembeka doing business

But she is so much more than just a perseverent business woman. 

Tembeka's work keeps the Xhosa traditions of the Eastern Cape alive because all her products are created in the genuine traditional way as they should be. Her knowledge of the old traditions and the way of the elders has grown over the years. Through her work she did a lot of research on traditional topics or "ethnic things" as she calls them.  

The Beauty Of Handmade

Inside her shop you will find only exclusively handcrafted items ranging from dresses made from traditional blue print fabric to beaded jewelry and traditional miniature Xhosa dolls. She designs and creates a great variety of products, always with an eye on tradition.

Beaded Xhosa jewelry, necklaces, anklets and bracelets

Although most of the products she makes are worn by the ladies, all of her products are symbolic for the Xhosa culture and tradition in the Eastern Cape. We will run a series of interviews with her shortly about the specific meaning and use of traditional Xhosa products.

Dresses made from the traditional blue print produced by Da Gamas

But Tembeka is open to modernity as well. Keeping traditions and values in line in her life and inspiring others through it has not kept her from understanding, that to stay in the design business and be successful you have to design products that reflect our time as well. So she has a variety of quite playful and some sexy dresses on her hangars for the younger generation - still using the traditional blue print.

Handmade Head Wrap in Two Colors Made From Traditional ShweShwe Fabric

The time that is needed to make a unique and outstanding item is taken. And even though, that the two ladies who sew and do the beautiful beading details on the dresses for her, work incredibly quick and fast, their hands are flying over the fabric-there is no doubt, that the time needed to complete a product will be taken.

And this is what great craftsmanship is all about. The costumer waits a little longer, spends a little more but it is all so worth it.

20th African Design

20th.century African design with a slight touch of tradition is presented on a vintage mannequin from the 1950's in Tembeka's shop (Chocolat, collecting these things, had tears in her eyes when she saw the mannequin).
Let's call Tembeka's shop rather a treasure trove.
She is a lady who is capable of understanding tradition and modernity and how they are linked in our society at the age of 70 years. 

Tembeka In Her Shop

Tembeka is a Xhosa lady of substance. There is no doubt about it! 

If you listen to her, you will learn a lot!

We learned that there is no easy way to success and if somebody tells you so you should become very sceptical.

Beaded Xhosa Wedding Necklace In The Traditional Colors Turquoise And Blue

The colors of the beads have a meaning in Xhosa tradition and for a traditional wedding there can be no deviation. The necklace has to be beaded in turquoise and black and white. 

Tembeka Looking Into The Future- In The Back Handcrafted Xhosa Dolls

Tembeka, a traditionalist African woman, is very much present in the now and as far as we are concerned nothing can stop her at the moment and she will be around with her business for many more years to come.

Miniature Dolls

Black and White Beaded Necklace