The Weaving Through Design exhibition was officially opened on Thursday 3 August 2017 at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo by guest of honour Thoko Ndlovu who is Group Marketing Director at Treger Products.
Weaving Through Design is a collaborative project between Amagugu International Heritage Centre artisans in Matobo and Rudo Nondo, a fashion designer from Harare.
The project brought together women artisans from different villages in Matobo who then constituted teams that worked in a collaborative working environment. Within the teams leaders have emerged and their mandate is to coordinate team members to meet production targets.
As a designer, Rudo Nondo has been challenging and assisting Matobo artisans to produce a new range of contemporary products with a high utilitarian value and also experimented with various traditional weaving methods and incorporated them in contemporary design.
New Basket Design
Men have equally been a part of the process and have been producing a new range of wood artifacts displayed as part of this exhibition.
The exhibition highlights how the world of fashion design and basket weaving has come together and how the coming together of two worlds has highlighted the power of collaboration and has allowed the use of traditional weaving skills to make contemporary products.
The Weaving Through Design project has promoted the ethos of intergenerational transmission of traditional craft skills. Elderly women and men have been working with young artisans to facilitate sharing of knowledge and skills in craftsmanship.
Guest admires a dress partly made from a beer strainer
From an initial 15 artisans at project inception in May 2017, the Weaving Through Design initiative now has a network of 35 active women whose work is displayed here.
A hearty thank you to the National Gallery of Zimbabwe for hosting the exhibition.
The exhibition will run until mid August. Make time and check it out.
#MatoboFest17 #AmaguguHeritage
