My weekend experience involved a lovely stroll at the Rosebank arts and craft market and exploring two museums.
I have always liked buying crafts mostly because l find them beautiful objects for decoration but never really took time to consider the effort, materials and time used for their production.
This time my visit was different.
I meet vendors and artists who were willing to share their works knowledge with me giving me a glimpse of the artistic world, arousing in me a keen interest to learn more about art than general knowledge.
I learnt about different types of gemstones used to create sculptures. The most popular being the soapstone which comes in two materials talc and steatite. The former being the most soft and sensetive one. The below picture shows different types of soapstones that include leaopard rock, springstone and many others.
Different stones are used for different sculptures depending on the advantages and disadvantages of the stone hence pricing is set determined by that.
First step is the mining of the stones in countries that have this type of stone such as Zimbabwe, Namibia and Tanzania. The raw stones are then polished (making them smoother, lighter and bringing out color) and cut in a certain way to produce desired result of sculpture. Below is a picture of polished stones
Sculptures often tell a story of a nations tribe, culture,wildlife and beliefs .l find it fascinating. Tanzania and Namibias fashion sense caught my attention. They are beads kinda people. The artist made it so vividly alive.
Coke cans and wires are also recycled to make objects.
I bought myself an elephant keyholder made of wire and beads, it caught my eye because my surname is Ndlovu meaning elephant.
I then proceeded with my stroll to the two museums nearby where l got to see illustrations of different artists. This one below and the one on my introduction are works by an artist called Zandile Tshabalala. Erotic is her work.
There is also one artist Thonton Kareya who show cases art of carefree happy people having a good time dancing. A pure vividly African Culture..Africans love to dance.
I didn't understand the artists vision on this one below but l find it garish.
Artists brilliant minds deserve great applause.. below are some pictures l took of my weekend experience such as this ostrich egg turned into a light holder. BEAUTIFUL.
I had an enlightening weekend l hope you guys did too. I have so many markets to visit on my list looking forward to those soon .. ☺
