Mdukatshani - Fifty Years of Beading

THE BEADED COPPER EGGS Although we saw less of Tess, our collaboration intensified. There was a regular to-and-fro between Waayhoek and the farm, and we ferried messages and supplies, while Tess shared ideas and continued to send orders our way. In a period when bead orders were scarce our crafters did a crash course on mbenge , learning to weave telephone wire to help Tessa meet a large order on time. It was at her request, too, that we tackled an order for beaded copper eggs from Liberty’s of London in 1995. The women faced the prospect with dismay. They had to weave copper on a real egg? They were glum when Ellen Mokoena arrived to teach them. Weaving copper on an egg was an exercise in physics, for the slightest pressure made the eggshell crack. They lost count of the eggs they cradled in their isidwabas as they went down to the river to wash. Was anyone watching? They’d never get it right. When Ellen returned home after two months of patient teaching, they were still struggling with a basic shape. Passing men chuckled when they saw the eggs. They looked like imincedo , prepuce covers. The women found it hard to share the laughter. It would take them four months to complete the order – with a pile of rejects left behind. The eggs would gradually improve, however, and within a year we couldn’t keep up with orders. Soon they would be copied across South Africa – a tribute to Tessa’s original idea. Eggs would mark a turning point for the project, a switch to copper wire, with a different kind of beading, which would transform and diversify everything we produced. Busisiwe Buthelezi joined the Dladla clan in about 1980 when her husband Swayidi brought her to the family home. She immediately joined the bead group, where she became known for the names she gave any new designs. She had no children with Swayidi, a source of pain to them both, but had two sons from a previous relationship, one of whom lost a leg after being injured in a local conflict.

Although by 1995 the women had given up their ochred headdresses they still wore their isidwabas , the pleated leather skirts worn like a wedding ring as a symbol of marriage An isidwaba had ritual significance. It couldn’t be discarded without a sacrifice to the family spirits, and would be buried with a woman in her grave. Made of cattle hide and goat skin, an isdwaba can last for decades.

Kanysile Masoka and Ngenzeni Mvelase struggle to master copper wire. Kanyisile’s gaiety would be muted by tragedy. In May 1981 her mother was shot, in October 2009 her son Fana.

22

Mdukatshani – Fifty Years of Beading