I made Golden Pear Tart out of my Alfresco recipe book this weekend. It's made with ground almonds, and it's delicious. If you want the recipe, I'll need at least two requests in the comments field. The reason is that I'm not sure if anyone is enjoying my recipes. So if you want 'em - beg me!
I quickly diverted these pretty bags that are on their way to Germany to snap them for you. Lucky Germans, I say!
Oh, and I found this beautiful picture of Mboto with her little son. Mbotho wove the beautiful Herringbone bag design last week, remember?
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Remember the designs of the new collection that came in last week? I was a bit disappointed when bag 1 and bag 2 came in last week. They were supposed to sport the Herringbone design but I felt they looked too similar to the Wave design. I decided to give it one more week, and was pleased with bag 3 and delighted with bag 4. I am so excited about the fact that the three-dimensionality comes through so well. It was woven by Mboto, pictured below with her daughter at our Christmas party last year. Earlier this year she also gave birth to a beautiful boy.
Thanks and well done, Mboto!
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This is a sneak preview of our new simple - but methinks beautiful - laptop bag. It needs some tweaking, but we're pretty chuffed with it (chuffed: safafrican for pleased). My thanks to Elna for helping me to channel this vague idea into something tangible. Elna is working on her Masters degree focussing on environmentally sustainable product development and approached me a while back to collaborate on some new Mielie products. The laptop bag is the first, but there will be more follow.
... and this is me with the rest-of-the-week team, minus Mzo, who was sick today. Our weavers meet on Thursdays, and this team comes in every other day of the week to sew up and finish the bags. Ideas magazine interviewed me for an article about entrepreneurs and came to take photos - with make-up artist et al. In front (l-r): Phumla, Marina & Nolundi. Middle: Nonqubela, Sheila & Nosithembele. Back: Mawethu, Malibongwe, Thaka and moi. Don't we look pretty?
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I snapped these happy mielie peeps on their way in to sebenza today. This week's prize for the glammest weaver goes to... Nomalizo with her brand new wet-look curls! Sorry about snapping you with your eyes shut, sisi!
Every weaver brings a little book with her in which her work in and new work out gets documented.
Remember the strelitzia flowers I mentioned on Monday? Well this strelitzia bag came in today.
... and the big news of the day is that this Mielie Daisy bag features in the soon-to-be-released High School Musical 3 in a big way... pretty cool, huh?! (Apologies for the poor pics.)
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On any given Friday morning, our loft is stacked with piles of woven bags waiting to be sewn up and have their handles stitched on.
I recently diverted these beauties on their way out the door.
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I've been tagged my my blogging guru, Heather of skinny laminx who has been incredibly generous with advice and constructive criticism (am I gushing?). Don't worry, I didn't know what tagging meant either - Heather challenged me to reveal the contents of my Mielie bag... so here goes:
1. Boring but functional wallet
2. Zip lock for business cash expenses
3. Pencil case made of upholstery fabric offcuts
4. Pens & pencils (I love plain old wooden HB pencils)
5. A broken silver chain mail bracelet I made ages ago and plan to fix one day
6. A flower I crocheted a while ago and fits into the "half-baked" product development category
7. My over-the-counter readers - this is a very new thing for me - I can see! I can thread needles!
8. iPod shuffle, for transferring files in a little felted pouch I made
9. My mini notebook with product ideas
10. The tiniest buttons in the world... I just know that one day they will be really really useful
11. One of Lungi's fabric scrap flower brooches
OK, now I guess I need to tag someone else to show and tell the contents of their bag... well, while we're keeping such good company, I think I'll choose another one of my design heroes, Helen Dardik, who has recently left some very encouraging comments on my blog. How about it, Helen?
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No prizes for guessing where these AJ beauties are headed... yup, to one of our favourite UK outlets, Fibre and Clay in Manchester.
The legs, wellies and the um, deconstructed tunic belong to the lovely Marina. Marina, even though we love your wellies, I hope they will be taking a little cupboard break, because this morning I saw this beautiful orb surrounded by some blue in the sky!
Also destined for Fibre and Clay is this beautiful flower power soccer ball, woven by Phumeza. The great thing is that it has a gym ball inner, so we can ship it flat which means it's cheaper to send. When it arrives at Fibre and Clay, owner Riana Martin can simply inflate it using an electric pump obtainable from any camping shop worth its salt.
Isn't it awesome? Well done, Phumeza!
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Yesterday, I intercepted these beautiful clutch bags before they were packed.
It was a beautiful day with a bit more light than we've had in the past couple
of weeks, if a bit chilly. Perfect light for snapping bags at the Greenhouse,
the nursery at the Montebello Design Centre, where we are based.
If you are looking for some inspiration on the recycling front, look no further
than Ann P Smith's website. Oh my goodness, I'm in awe.
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Remember the wave bag I told you about here?
Well, sewn up it looks like this:
See what I mean about the pattern getting a bit lost? Oh well,
we'll just have to wait for the carpet version of this design.
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The bag of the minute:
…is this Aloe on black:
It was woven by this fabulous person:
There are lots of things we love about Phumeza, but the
gold star on her front tooth is right up there!
The thought for the day:
We've recently spent a lot of time working on our mission
statement,and have been asking ourselves some pretty soul-
searching questions. This sentence has been pinging around
in my head:
At Mielie we believe in the power of re-examination, in
drawing the potential from people and materials that most
would have overlooked.
The Xhosa word of the week:
…is godwa, which means "but". I love the dadooom sound
of it - like a bad omen.
Enough Inspiration for a lifetime:
can be found at Marimeko
well worth the time it takes to download.
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