African Art!

Today was our last day in Cape Town! I am so sad! I absolutely love it here! First we went to this place called African Allsorts, based in Salt River. Brothers Jason and David Rosenstein established this bead and wire art company in March of 2004. Their primary goal is to create jobs in Africa! They employ local artists who are super talented bead workers and they make these absolutely AMAZING bead sculptures of animals, people, plants and bowls. We got a chance to meet all the artists and they taught us how to make beaded hearts. It was really cool! They are super talented and taught us some cool bead skills! Some of the animal sculptures were just insane! They had a life size zebra made entirely of beads! It was SO COOL! And the beads are small; like tiny beads that you make jewelry with. This one guy was making a beaded ladybug and so I told him, “I like your lady bug” and he said, “What is a lady bug?” and I pointed to the beaded sculpture in his hand and he said, “this is not a lady bug, this is a lady bird. “ I loved that! A ladybird! You can see pictures of these amazing pieces at www.africanallsorts.com. Then we went and visited Montebello Design Centre. It is such a cool place that reminded me so much of the Oregon College of Art and Craft. This place sits in the original farm buildings of the historic Montebello, in the middle of the greenbelt of Newlands, and is a development project for previously disadvantaged artists. They rent space to the artists and help them become independent self-employed artists. They had jewelry studios, pottery studios, a hand weavers studio (that mom would have LOVED!) a woodworking studio, a printing studio, and a greenhouse. They had a great café and we got hot chocolate and ate cranberry apple muffins. It was such a cool place. Then we went to Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden (that is on the slope of Devils peak). It is one of the world’s most famous botanical gardens! It has over 8,500 species of indigenous plant species! It is also home to one of the 6 floral kingdoms of the world! Mom and George would have gone nuts! This place was really, really incredible. We got to walk all around and have lunch. I love you Cape Town! Oh and a VERY HAPPY 80th BIRTHDAY to Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu!