77 Shortmarket Street, Cape Town July 15, 2008

Welcome to Streetwires !Streetwires is a project but it also a shop and a workshop!

 

Here are some photos of the shop at 77 Shortmarket Street in Cape Town where you can see and buy a large range of wire art product.

 

Downstairs, with Reggie, you could experience unique township craft in the convenience of Cape Town city center. In the workshop, round 80 artists work (as the name said) in team.

 

Don’t hesitate to go through the door!

Wire art in few words July 15, 2008

 

Wire art is the sculpting and crafting of works of art using wire, beads, tin cans and other recycled goods as a medium. It is a great example of the African cleverness, imagination and ressourcefulness.

 

This craft is uniquely South African and it comes likely from the North-East corner of South Africa. For many years, due to a lack of resources to buy proper toys, the young boys of these regions have been fashioning wire, tin cans and whatever else they can get their hands on to make ingenious toys, cars and radios.

 

Older inhabitants of the area, recognizing the uniqueness and marketability of these wire toys, began making their own wire creations and selling them to tourists and visitors to the region, and the vibrant medium of wire art was born.

 

 

 The scope and range of wire art products is almost limitless: I will show them to you in a folder article. Specificity of wire art is that it is often designed not only with ornamental value in mind but also to be functional in one way or another in the home or the office.

 

For instance, this ladybird is a beautiful candlestick.

 

 

          And these radios are fully functional.

Minibus-taxi !! July 15, 2008

What is it ???Minibus-taxi is an incredible means of public transportation in Cape Town!

The network covers the entire city: generally ways are from the central railway station to a specific destination. To take it, you can go on the central railway station and take the good minibus or –and it’s the great advantage- you can wait for it along his way and make him a sign to stop. You tell the driver – or the man who collects money if there’s one- where you want to stop and you pay for your trip (round 5R, it’s really cheap!).

Drivers drive often really crazy and sometimes you are almost 20 crowded people in one minibus but it still the cheapest and most convenient way to go through Cape Town!

General information about SA July 15, 2008

What can we say about this wonderful country? 

First, a map:

Second, basic data:

Population	47,9m
Political structure	Constitutional democracy (President : Thabo Mbeki)
Motto	!ke e: ǀxarra ǁke  (“Unity in diversity”)
Capitals	Pretoria (executive)
	Bloemfontein (judicial)
	Cape Town (legislative)
Official languages	Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Xhosa, IsiZulu, Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, SiSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga
Area	1 221 037 km²
HDI	0.674
Currency	South African Rand (ZAR)
GDP (market exchange rate)	US$ bn 282.9
GDP per head (market exchange rate)	US$ 5 943

Third, I expect you could discover several aspects of South Africa through my blog. And remember, it’s a colorful country!