Design

Mwayiwathu simply means "blessings" in Chiyao, the language of the Yao people in Malawi.  This is the name that the HIV support group in Ndiwasa Village near Domasi (map) chose for their group when they started working for Dsenyo.  

HIV Positive Living Groups are quite numerous in Malawi because of the high HIV infection rate.  The purpose of these groups is to provide a safe place for people to share their struggles, council each other and encourage others in the community to live openly with the disease.  There is still a huge stigma associated with HIV, which is evident especially among men.  The majority of these groups are comprised by women, many of whom are widowed, and only decided to get tested for HIV after seeing their husbands die too young and suspecting AIDS was the cause.

Mwayiwathu is a group of 20+ women who chose this name for their group because they see the work from Dsenyo as a blessing and a solution to some of the challenges they face.  They use their wages to pay for transport to the hospital to get their ARVs (anti-retro virals), buy food, pay school fees for their children and purchase fertilizer for growing crops. 

On our recent trip to Malawi this August we interviewed each member of the group asking, "Has your quality of life improved through working with Dsenyo?"  Esinara Kwalamasa (photo left) said that it really has because she has learned new skills, she enjoys working together with the other women sharing her problems and ideas with them.  She also said that now she has money to cover basic necessities like food and soap which were a struggle before.

The Mwayiwathu HIV Support Group makes the following items for Dsenyo...everything is hand-stitched, no machines: Flowers (hair clips, ornaments, magnets, etc) and Little Friends (lion, monkey, elephant, bunny stuffed animals).

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By, Spencer Gale, guest blogger, who is interned with Dsenyo summer 2011.

Monkey Orange. It’s a small fruit that grows on trees up to 5m in central Africa. A mature tree typically produces about 400 pieces of fruit each year, which can be eaten (though they have a certain gelatinous quality that may resemble brains…ewww). The seeds are poisonous but have medicinal properties, while the fruit itself has high nutritional value.

When produced in excess the Monkey Oranges can be turned into beautiful décor globes such as the ones Chifundo Artisans Network and Mwayiwathu HIV Support Group produce in Malawi for Dsenyo. They remove the skin, then hollow out the Monkey Oranges, leaving a think, hard shell. After drying out entirely the Monkey Oranges are hand-painted and varnished to create the beautiful Monkey Orange décor globes and ornaments brought right from one tree to your tree!

By Ellen Arkfeld, guest blogger, who is interning with Dsenyo this summer.

We love the African wax print textiles with funky patterns and bright colors that we use in our bags.  But, strangely enough, many of what we know as “African textiles” don’t come from Africa at all.  In fact, the style of batik us

By, Ellen Arkfeld, guest blogger, who is interning with Dsenyo this summer.

Hey we found this cool video about a textile company called Vlisco that makes African textiles… in Holland.  They make designs that we find really inspiring and are very popular in West Africa.

Vlisco is a Dutch company that prints and sells African textiles in Central and West Africa.  They started out when the Dutch picked up the process of batik from their Indonesian colonies.  Using batik and their new technology of the printing press, Vlisco began to produce colorful African textile on a large scale, becoming the first to commercialize African textile.  Today, Vlisco is a very popular brand in Central and West Africa, selling fabrics inspired by African textile design.  A lot of the time their designs have nothing to do with Africa, Vlisco says, but they’re still very popular and reflect the tastes of different regions of Africa.  Each textile, designed by the Dutch, is named by local market women and tells a story about their culture. 

Vlisco has long been known as the Rolls-Royce of African wax print textiles and is now starting to become a fashion label as well.  They are creating funky haute couture looks in addition to selling their textiles.  Even though their textiles aren’t technically African, they definitely capture the fun, bright styles that we love in African textiles\

My degree is in International Studies from the University of Arizona,  where I focused on economic development.  I’m a jack of all trades type of gal.  I have worked as a fine arts painter for several years and have a natural eye for design. I learned to sew as a kid and have always been good with my hands.

Over the past few years,  I have taught myself how to design handbags and accessories by hijacking my step-mom’s 1960’s sewing machine (permanently on loan to me) and just going at it!  I sketched designs, rented books from the public library, dissected handbags to study how they were constructed, studied other designers by going to stores and sketching their designs, etc.  I’m still learning...it never ends!

I tend to dive into things with a lot of energy, a willingness to learn along the way and accept that the end result might not be exactly what I had in mind from the beginning. Some of the best art and the best designs happen by “accident”.