21 March 2009

While it may be true that one man's junk is another man's treasure, some crafty people find ways to turn what is no man's treasure (or everyman's junk) into everyman's treasure (or no man's junk).

If this sounds confusing, then let's put this claim into finer detail, Brilliant Horongwi explains that for every one hundred or so meals devoured at steak houses, one pair of cow's horns finds itself ingnominiously dumped on the scrapheap - with seemingly no future other than to be ground up for use as agricultural phosphates.

Enter Brilliant, and at the Country Craft Market of 21 March, he will be demonstrating how he fashions these worthless, rejected waste items, into things of beauty that reclaim some of the glory they once enjoyed when they were born proudly aloft by the original bovine owners.

But Brilliant, is not the only bright spark in his small enterprise. For he has a secret weapon, vibrant Shendrene his wife, who shines as brilliantly by contributes to his work with new ideas and other guidance. Indeed it was Shendrene who saw the potential in cow's horns and imagined how they could be converted into decorative ietms that reflected the arts, craft and culture of Africa people.

Brilliant and Shenderne hail from Harare in Zimbabwe. They left Zimbabwe in 2003 to explore better prospects in South Africa and made the migration all the way south to the Cape Town megalopolis where they now live and work. Since about 2000, Brilliant has been producing metal sculptures of animals and birds and only recently started working with horns as well.

Working with horns has been a whole new challenge that he is enjoying, but it has its less pleasant side as well he says. Cleaning the horns inside and out is a tedius task with no short cuts that involves lots of effort. Still, he and Shendrene are discovering daily, new ways to improve what they are doing, and extend the variety of designs they produce.

And in turn, converting there ideas into realities has demanded new techniques and new visions as the forming of 3-d images from already curved and hollow raw material, poses special problems with designs and carving. Still they seem to have mastered this skill.

Brilliant and Shenderen invite all visitors to the Country Craft Markt on 21 March to visit their stall to see these techniques being applied to produce good and interesting craftwork. They will also have a range of their work on display as well.

Last Updated 27 November 2009 15:43