Over the past year or so, Thanda Zulu has been exploring the possibility of selling dresses to boost fundraising efforts for Thanda, à la Thanda Zulu jewelry.

Thanda’s “test dummy” dresses from last year.

We trialed a few dresses at Thanda’s fundraiser in New York City this past May, and they were a hit!  So we are now looking to delve even deeper into dressmaking.

Tyler, Thanda’s co-director, and Siya, a former Thanda student who is creating his own sewing business, are our primary dressmakers.  Tyler taught himself how to sew and designed Thanda’s dress patterns from scratch.  Siya taught himself how to sew when he was in Thanda’s art program so he could make a sweatshirt for his final art project, and since then, community members and overseas visitors have been flocking to him with sweatshirt orders.

Siya and Tyler, Thanda’s dynamic sewing duo!

Last week, Thanda Zulu’s loosely-assembled design team took a trip to Durban to pick out fabrics for its first real installment of fall/winter dresses.  Here’s a peak at what we snagged!

Siya showing Holly his favorite fabric, which looks suspiciously similar to the shirt he’s wearing...

With so many choices, it took us forever to pick out some key fabrics!

Part of the challenge of getting a thriving dressmaking business off the ground is that fabric choices in South Africa are never consistent.  By the time a Thanda Zulu customer in the U.S. sees a dress she wants on Thanda’s website, we might not be able to find that fabric again at our favorite fabric haunts.  So Thanda is exploring how to be creative and flexible with its fabric options while still catering to its primarily Stateside constituency.

Tyler was pretty much set on making a few dresses out of this Spiderman-esque fabric. Holly and I convinced him, however, that that probably wouldn’t be a sound investment for Thanda Zulu.

Our final fabric choices. We hope they’re as interchangeable and popular as we’re predicting they’ll be!

Siya at the checkout counter, taking one last look at his zipper and thread picks.

In all we visited three or four fabric shops that day.  (All the photos above are from our most prosperous stop, though, since the rest of the stores are located in Durban’s not-so-camera-safe downtown area.)  And we think it was a success!

Now, let the dressmaking commence!

One last shot in honor of the World Cup: Siya in front of Durban’s Moses Mabhida stadium!

A few of us were in Durban the other day to do an airport pickup, so we decided to pay a visit to the Zulu Beadwork Project.  (In case you need a refresher, the Zulu Beadwork Project is the income-generation project Thanda Zulu works with to get its jewelry.)

The ZBP office is housed in a room/storage-like space smack-dab in the middle of a downtown parking structure.  The office’s handmade shelves, large tables, and unmatched chairs give the place a workshop-like feel.  All sorts of colorful materials — like beads, thread, needles, and clasps — are scattered throughout the room.  And it’s always exciting to see what kinds of new designs the women are working on by admiring the sample pieces hanging from the walls.

The ZBP office is where all items get inspected and categorized before being shipped out, so every table is filled with boxes and baggies containing Thanda Zulu’s finished products.

When we were there, two beaders were working on some new necklaces.  So we watched them work their magic!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this quick behind-the-scenes look at the Zulu Beadwork Project as much as we did!

Phillimon (on the right) with his brother, Albert.

Phillimon is Thanda Zulu’s primary wire artisan.  He and a small group of his friends and relatives design and hand-make Thanda Zulu’s colorful and creative beaded wire animals.

A sampling of some past work.

Phillimon is from Zimbabwe, where the political situation is precarious and the economy is, to put it lightly, a mess.  As people around here often say, Zimbabwe went from being Africa’s bread basket to being Africa’s basket case.  Unemployment estimates hover around 80 – 90%, and inflation is so bad (at over 200,000,000%!!) that, as one op-ed put it, a person would have to withdraw the maximum amount of Zimbabwean currency allowed per day for four to five days in order to have enough cash to purchase just one loaf of bread.

So you can imagine that making a living in Zimbabwe is about as challenging as it gets.  But Phillimon, a dedicated entrepreneur and an artist with boundless creative vision, is a bona fide Zimbabwean success.  He supports himself, his family, and who knows how many other friends and neighbors — an incredible feat for someone whose home country is submerged in seemingly endless poverty.

The first time I met Phillimon, he and his brother, Albert, had just taken a trip to the Thanda After-School site to meet the teachers and see the kids their crafts help support.  The two of them were all smiles, excited to have finally met the South African youngsters who also reap the benefits of their hard work.

I asked Phillimon and Albert about their lives and their work, and here is what they said.

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Q: How long have you been doing this?
Phillimon: Since 2004.

Q: How did you get into doing beaded crafts?
Albert: Our brothers were into it, so we took it from them.

Q: What do you like the most about your craft?
Phillimon: It’s all about passion.  If you’re passionate about it, it’s good.  It creates jobs for other people.  We make a living.  We feed our families.

Q: Do you support any family members from this?  Who and how many?
Phillimon: Our brother was doing it, but he passed away.  I’m the breadwinner now.  My father is old, so he can’t do crafts anymore.  We support our extended family — about 13 to 15 people.  Our aunt and her husband died, so we’re supporting their family now, too.  The situation for our families is what binds us together.  We’re teaching some family members how to make the crafts now, too.  Some of them are passionate about it.  That’s good.

Q: How has running this business helped or changed your life?
Phillimon: It’s changed me.  We’re not used to interacting with people.  It’s changed the way we interact with people and see people.  It’s changed our futures.  It puts food on the table.  It pays for our brothers’ and sisters’ school.  This can change your behavior, too.  [Zimbabweans] think every black South African is xenophobic.  But you see the other part of people, the other behavior of people.  When you interact with people, you see that these people, they’re kind, they’re good.  And [the craft] keeps people off the streets.
Albert: It’s something to keep you busy.  It will keep you out of crime.  It will keep you off the streets.

Q: What are some of the challenges you face in your business?
Phillimon: It’s not that easy.  We face challenges.  The weather affects us.  During rain, the wire rusts, and we have to throw it away.
Albert: We sell on weekends.  If it rains, we can’t sell.
Phillimon: Most of the challenges arise out of nowhere.  Sometimes, we have to buy materials even if we don’t have enough money to buy them.  So if it rains and we can’t sell over the weekend, we can’t get the money.

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We thank Phillimon and his crew of dedicated artisans for all their hard work!

Abigail, from Newton, Massachusetts, hosted a Thanda Zulu jewelry party with her mom over the holiday season.  Here are her reflections about the party and on Thanda Zulu itself!

I decided to host a ThandaZulu jewelry party because just cutting checks to an organization I believed in wasn’t cutting it.  But, as we all know, wanting to do more is very different than actually doing more. I remember flipping though my calendar for dates and thinking, how can I possibly squeeze in another thing?

After hosting my party, though, I can tell you, the party squeezes itself in—it is so easy, you’ll spend the most time coming up with your invite list.  And this one-more-thing, which I chose to hold right before the holidays, when life is truly mad, is perhaps the most important, most rewarding thing I’ve done all year.  Not to mention, it was great fun, too.

The folks at Thanda Zulu have the jewelry party process down to a science.  Their directions are not only incredibly clear, I found myself thinking, really, this is all I have to do?  They provide you with an electronic invite (or paper, if you prefer), info about the organization to share with your guests, a list of indispensable tips for a successful event, and will even put together a selection of jewelry for you.

Together, my mother and I invited 50 people. Eager to finish up their holiday shopping, they left the display table almost bare in a short 45 minutes.  We ran out of certain necklaces before we even ran out of mini-quiches!

In two hours, we raised nearly $1800 dollars.  Friends were eager to have us throw the party again next year…but at Thanksgiving, so that they could buy early and buy more.

As we packed away enough left over cheese to last until May, my mother and I both thought about quitting our jobs and taking Thanda Zulu on the road à la Mary Kay, so pleased were we with our success.

And then there was the feeling of handing that fat envelope over to Thanda: I wanted to give them a substantial amount for all of the work they do, for all the people who need it, and as thanks for how helpful they were to those who wanted to help them.  In the end, while I was impressed with the amount of money we raised, I was proud to have been a part of Thanda’s goal of sustainability.

When you sell Thanda Zulu jewelry, you are selling a local product, and supporting local needs.  It is not charity, it is community.  That’s how I felt after my party, like a member of the Thanda community.  And I can’t wait to do it again.

Thanks, Abigail!

Hepburn’s Closet, an online fashion magazine for Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, showcased Thanda Zulu in its November 2009 issue.  Here’s what the magazine’s co-editor, Pamela, had to say about working with the jewelry:

“Working with Thanda Zulu was an amazing experience!  For our photo shoot we tried to envision different ways in which young college girls would wear the jewelry, and thanks to Thanda Zulu’s brilliant colors, textures and variety of styles, we formed more combinations than we could have ever imagined.  And the best part of it is that, with the unique jewelry from Thanda Zulu, you are not only stealing looks throughout the crowd, but you are also modeling a good cause!”

Before you click over to Hepburn’s Closet’s not one, but two (!) posts on Thanda Zulu, here’s a preview of some of the unique and stunning images that came out of the photo shoot.

Thanda Zulu gets its jewelry from an income-generation program called the Zulu Beadwork Project. The women involved in this project live in rural areas around Durban, which is about 100 kilometers north of Thanda Zulu’s headquarters in Hibberdene. They are able to work from home, so they can take care of their families (many of which include extra children, whether they’re extended family members or local orphans) while earning an income at the same time.

Some of the beaders working from home.

I have found it quite interesting to read these women’s stories, so I’m going to share some here.

Phumzile and Sbongile Shozi, sisters who work together in the Zulu Beadwork Project, say they enjoy getting to make elaborate and striking Zulu-style necklaces.

Phumi, 39, began beading at the age of 10. She saw it as an opportunity to earn money for her education, as South Africa’s schools charge annual fees. She has now been beading for 29 years and uses her income to pay her children’s school fees. Phumi is proud of her ability to work intricately with her hands and is grateful that she can provide her family with food and shelter.

Sbo, 32, is the youngest of the Shozi sisters. She learned to bead at age seven in order to pay her school fees. Sbo is proud of her talent and her profession. She appreciates that she can focus on raising her children and paying for their schooling by working from home.

Phumi Shozi smiles while she learns some new beading techniques at a training in Durban.

Nana Sibiya, 33, produces some of the highest quality work for the Zulu Beadwork Project. Nana discovered her natural talent for beading in 2003 when her father left the family, leaving her to support her two children, her mother, and eight other members of her family. She is proud that she can face the challenge head-on and achieve success through her beadwork.

Busi Makhoba, 27, has been beading for six years. Her stable income enables her to support her child, as well as 11 members of her extended family. Busi recently built a new house for her family using the money she has earned doing beadwork, since their old home was destroyed during heavy rains. Busi is proud that the income she earns allows her to give more opportunities and comforts to her family.

Zulu huts.

Nomatemba Endla, 35, started doing beadwork in 2000. Before learning how to bead from Phumi, Nomatemba was employed as a domestic worker. She says she was earning very low wages and that life was hard.

Now, Nomatemba supports her three children as a single mom and is able to pay for their school fees — something her parents weren’t able to do for her, which is why she was forced to leave school in 8th grade. Nomatemba also supports five members of her extended family through the income she earns as a beadworker.

She is proud that her beading skills give her independence and enable her to care for her family.
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So, those are some of the beaders! We hope to bring you more beader bios in the months to come!

That means Welcome! in isiZulu, the language of South Africa’s Zulu people.

So, isibingelelo!  You’ve arrived at Thanda Zulu’s new blog.  I’m CiCi, Thanda Zulu Talk’s primary blogger.  I’m currently spending nine months volunteering with Thanda in South Africa.  Like many of you, I became involved with Thanda while living in the U.S., selling jewelry and helping Thanda’s founder, Angela Larkan, throw fundraising events when she came to New York City.

Since arriving in South Africa, I have discovered that there’s much more to the beaded jewelry and handcrafts Thanda Zulu offers than I had even fathomed.  So far, I’ve learned that the colors and shapes in traditional Zulu-style jewelry actually contain specific meanings; I’ve heard interesting stories about the women in the Zulu Beader Project, the income-generation program Thanda Zulu works with; and I’ve gotten to meet some of the women in Thanda’s sewing project, a new initiative that works with women near Thanda After-School’s site in Umtwalume.  So I’ll definitely be elaborating on those in future posts!

But, that’s only part of the premise of this blog.  We thought it would also be interesting to hear from you!  Why did you decide to sell Thanda Zulu jewelry?  What were some highlights from your jewelry party over the weekend?  Do you have a great hors d’oeuvres recipe to share with other party hosts?  How do you wear your Thanda Zulu jewelry?

We want to hear about all that and more!  So, please email your write-ups and photos to thandazulutalk@gmail.com with “Blog Post” in the subject line, and we’ll be sure to post as many of them as we can.

So, we hope to see (read?) you around!

P.S.  If you’re curious about more Thanda After-School-specific stories, be sure to check out our new Thanda After-School blog as well, which contains different, but no less interesting content.