Cape crusader

DESIGN: CATHY O'CLERYhas co-founded a bespoke hand-dyeing and beading textile business in South Africa. No bother that she lives in Co Down while her business partner is based in Johannesburg

THREE YEARS AGO, I moved back to Ireland with my family from South Africa where, for more than a decade, I had worked on a number of home-decor magazines. I was also involved in product development and consultancy work, mainly for shops selling furniture and accessories.

It had been an exhilarating time to be in South Africa, especially in the field of design. When we arrived in early 1995, the country was still isolated and was just beginning to release itself from the horrors of apartheid. Not surprisingly, the design scene was almost nonexistent. There were only two small shops in Johannesburg that sold local contemporary design and the owners struggled to find suppliers. But within a few years the retail scene began to pick up, home stores began to open, and international publishers launched local versions of Elle Decoration and House and Garden magazines. Home-grown publications smartened up and more lifestyle titles were launched.

Wealthy South Africans are obsessed with their homes and with good reason. The climate is wonderful and space is generous in the suburbs. Architecturally, anything goes, and during my time many international styles went in and out of vogue: Tuscan, Provencal, Scandinavian, retro, English vintage – you name it, South Africans tried it. As with the rest of the world, the market was soon flooded with cheap Chinese imports and people found they could play with a style one year and swap to another the next.

However, there was a growing awareness that they should advance their own sense of style. As designers absorbed the new foreign influences in the post-apartheid era, they realised that what was on their own doorstep was unique and desirable – but needed to be taken to the next level. South Africans are ingenious with recycling and passionate about sustainability. They are masters of the handmade and embraced the challenge of adapting traditional methods for more contemporary purposes.

In my last year, I was delighted to be asked to curate an exhibition promoting South African design called The South Africa House. It’s now a biannual event, with a different curator for each show. It was the first time in Johannesburg that a platform had been given to high-end, local contemporary design and it created quite an impact. At the same time, Design Indaba, an international design expo held annually in Cape Town, was reaching its heights. International shops, such as Anthropology in the US and the Conran Shop in London, began to send buyers and they now stock South African merchandise. The World Cup has of course provided an added boost to the country’s profile.

South African design is alive and well and this year, my friend Taryn Lamberti and I took over a small textile company in Johannesburg. We called it Bead, and it’s a hand-dyeing and beading company. The previous owner was an artist who created one-off designs; we were more commercially minded and could see the potential in production runs. The beading style she developed, though well-known in South Africa, was hardly known abroad. We knew Europeans would love it and Americans even more so, and we decided the climate was right for handmade products that have a decent provenance.

Not for one second did we think my living in Ireland would be a barrier to making it work. Within days I was emailing design ideas through, and within six weeks we took over the business and hit the ground running. Taryn emails photographs to me as new designs are being dyed or beaded, and during the course of the day we go back and forth with pictures, tweaking and improving. Business meetings are done via Skype. But nothing beats hands-on design work so I was glad to visit the studio in May. It’s a small set-up. We have two beaders, Sue Mabaso and Lorah Phampa. Bridgette Khalane does the dyeing and cutting and has responsibility for quality control. Grace Ndlvou works part-time finishing the cushions as production demands.

We are six working women who all feel passionate and are proud of what we do. Each brings a unique skill to the business; Sue and Lorah are master beaders and are teaching Taryn and I all the different methods of beading, but Bridgette is the real expert and an alchemist when it comes to the complexity of dyeing. Without her guidance Taryn and I would be floundering. Grace comes from the fashion industry and can turn her machine to anything.

Beaded work has been given a bad name by the sweat shops of Asia. Knowing the hours of work it takes to bead anything and the skill required, I refuse to buy a cheap beaded item of any kind. There are plenty of beaded textiles on the market so our points of difference are in the hand-dyeing – which creates a subtle unevenness and layering of colour not found in commercial fabrics, and in the quality of beads we use, most of which are antique trade beads sourced from all over Africa. Crucially, our designs, although contemporary and of global appeal, are proudly African and embody the spirit of creativity from that continent. We borrow cultural references from all over Africa and reinterpret them in a modern context.

Perhaps we are all still shell-shocked and reeling from the effects of recent financial woes, but if there is one thing to be learned from South Africa’s recovery from the long and damaging years of apartheid, it is that if you want change, you have to get up and make it happen.

Some of Bead’s cushions will be on sale in the Conran Shop in London from September. See beaddesignstudio.com for further details