Colourful EC Arts and Crafts

Brian Shamu from East London uses pinewood and metal to make beautiful ornaments that are a variety of shapes and has been coming to the Festival for the past eight years. He said that sales have been declining, especially this year.

“For me I noticed a decline from sales for the past three years but I keep coming back because art is what I live on,” he said.

Shamu has been doing the work for the past 18 years.

“I feel like the National Arts Festival is slowly shifting its focus off us people of the arts because you even get stalls that sell things from China,” he said.

He added that because of this shift, most visitors don’t pay much attention to artists but rather focus on retail goods. “The Department of Arts and Culture needs to promote our work and make us known to attract tourists,” he concluded.

Craftswoman Chanell Ellis is part of the Lavelilanga Women’s Crafts from Somerset East that uses recycled material, including newspapers and plastic bottles, to make a variety of things such as woven place mats, vases and gift bags. Ellis said that business is going really well for Lavelilanga and they are grateful for the financial support that the Department of Arts and Culture and the Eastern Cape Development Corporation has given them.

“It is my first time coming to the festival but I’ll definitely be back next year,” she said.

Woodworker Wouter Holleman from the Grahamstown Woodworkers Club said that they started with this project five years ago and so far, things have been going well for them, especially this year.

“Most of my customers are people from overseas and those that have seen our work from the previous years at the Festival,” he said.

He added that they would come back for the Festival again next year.

The women from the Masthandane Women’s Group say they have been doing crafts for the past 22 years and have been selling their art annually.

“Business is very slow this year and we think it has to do with the decline of the economy – there are more sellers than buyers,” they said.

The women make and sell handbags, bracelets and beadwork and they get funding from the Department of Arts and Culture.