Telephone Wire as Material

In this speech, Marisa Fick-Jordan talks about how contemporary materials such as telephone wire have started to replace scarce natural grasses used by traditional Zulu weavers. Marisa was inspired to take what knowledge she had of art and share it with a camp of wire weavers. The group, which grew from five to fifty weavers within a year to create a community of artisans, creates not only traditional products but also more contemporary ones as well. By teaching the Zulu weavers how to create a diverse range of products and designs with their new materials, Marisa Fick-Jordan shows her audience how she is creating a line of mass-produced products that are not only commercially desirable, but that are also supplying work for 300 weavers in Durban.