South Africa is a land rife with incredible handmade treasures. On our first trip to Johannesburg almost 20 years ago, we visited the Rosebank Flea Market on our first day in the city and were overwhelmed by all the incredible carvings, bead work and textiles. We flew home with a box filled with locally acquired objets d’art. Little did we realize that the Rosebank Flea Market was a collection of folks selling items you could easily find everywhere across the country including vendors set up literally on the side of the road.
It lead us on a quest to discover more authentic pieces. In the true spirit of Found, we want to meet the artists and learn their stories. Twenty years later we were thrilled to find The Watershed in Cape Town’s vibrant V&A Waterfront. Located just next to the soon to open Time Out Market and adjacent to the Two Oceans Aquarium, The Watershed is an impeccable collection of over 150 retailers selling original arts, crafts, clothing, jewelry, furniture and art. This is a fantastic one-stop shop under the roof of an old warehouse where you can find fantastic souvenirs and unique items to remember your trip to South Africa.
Unlike the flea market or at roadside vendors, The Watershed is not a place to haggle. I’m never comfortable playing the haggling game. While it’s great fun and sport for some travellers looking for a deal, in South Africa it just feels like paying full price is a way to help support the local economy including these young brands/ designers/ artists. The spirit of The Watershed is to foster local artistry and design. When purchasing you’re often speaking with the maker themselves and haggling feels inappropriate.
There are shops like Africa Nova and Frick that offer a small but well curated collection of locally made designs. The former carries pieces from some of my favourite Cape Town designers such as Mungo, Monkeybiz and Clementina. The latter has more whimsical items from petit ceramics to fun art prints with a distinctly South African vibe.
We were so excited to find Spaza, an eco-friendly and sustainable brand offering kitchen textiles, storage solutions and re-usable alternatives. Not only that, they are woman owned and have been given a Fair Trade Certification which means their workers are paid fairly and equitably. We loved their fabric bowl and casserole covers (see ya later saran wrap) with whimsical and distinctly South African designs including the national flower the protea. Additionally they offer pretty kitchen linens and table decor as well as some awesome re-usable beauty products like washable make-up pads.
Another great textile based shop that we loved is Blossom, started by three women from Claremont near Cape Town. They started making vintage inspired bags using shweshwe fabric from the regional Xhosa and Zulu peoples. Shweshwe is fabulous. Colourful and durable, it offers many patterns with circles. The fabric was traditionally worn by a new bride. Now it’s adorning all manner of products across South Africa and these hand bags are lovely. The women also make wallets, eyeglass cases, computer sleeves and hand bags of all sizes. In addition to the shweshwe, they also use the colourful Ankara fabric that is made in Ghana. Ankara, like shweshwe is waxed so it is durable as well as colourful.
Woodstock Laundry offers a selection of whimsical, organic cotton pyjamas and lounge wear. Designs incorporating pink cheetahs, octopi and colourful botanicals make for fantastic pjs that you won’t want to relegate to the bedroom. These clothes are “not only for sleeping in but for living in.” And who wouldn’t want to live in these all day long. We would happily go all Howard Hughes and only wear pjs when these are hanging in the closet.
In addition to the many bead artists, basket weavers, painters and photographers selling in The Watershed, we found ourselves drawn to the eco-warriors repurposing disposable stuff into objets d’art, jewelry and other items. Like the many colourful baskets made out of telephone wire, we found a designer who used the tabs off pop cans to craft jewelry, hangbags and even clothing. It was hard to believe that these shimmery treasures were made from hundreds of pop can tabs and not luxe fabrics.
We also loved seeing the great animal sculptures crafted from old flip flops. How clever to take an item that is so disposable and impossible to recycle and find a way to make it into something quite interesting. Even working the Havianas tags into the pieces, we were impressed with this level of ingenuity.
We could only write about a handful of the great shops throughout The Watershed. It really deserves an afternoon to properly explore. Be sure to speak to the makers and shopkeepers as there are such interesting and powerful stories of creativity and overcoming adversity. The entrepreneurship and innovation is such a beautiful thing in this building and your experience is only that much richer for learning more about the wonderful people sharing their gifts at The Watershed.
