A final word on our last post.

Its been a while since we posted anything on our blog and we’ll really try to update it more regularly. Cathy Ronaasen, who many of you will fondly remember as our Sales and Export manager sent a response to our last post which I wanted to share. 

Great blog, and very relevant article. The day customers / consumers / distributers stop exploiting the independent artists (who literally get stripped of all dignity in this process), and start supporting organisations such as yourselves, the more capacity you would have to employ the independents. Ironic, isn't it?
The true worth of beautiful, handmade, high-quality items is in sustainability, not in making a quick buck. I would love to know if these same buyers could make it themselves for the price they pay?

As a post script on the subject of informal artists versus Streetwires Artists, I thought it may be worth describing a day in the life of a Streetwires Artist. The artists arrive at work between 8.30 and 9.00, at which point they are issued with new jobs or continue with the completion of existing jobs. We take a tea break at 10.45 and then work until 1pm when we take a one hour lunch break. We have 2 kitchens, one upstairs and one downstairs, both equipped with microwave ovens so that the artists can heat up their lunch, a kettle upstairs and an urn for hot water in the downstairs kitchen. There are 4 restrooms on the premises. We have heaters in winter and fans in summer, so the studio is by and large, a comfortable work space ( notwithstanding the odd giant cockroach or pigeon that occasionally disturbs the peace).
The artists are paid per piece, which is why there are 3 dedicated sales people ( not including Sibu, who runs the shop) who focus entirely on getting orders into the studio. Although the artists are paid per piece, the relationship between SW and the artists is still contractual and all new artists are entered onto our system, issued with a C-number and have a bank account opened for them. We are also subject to the Basic Rules and Conditions of Employment as described by the department of labour.

I like to think that Streetwires is a happy place to work. Of course we’ve had miserable times when work has been scarce, but mostly we’re a great team. Many of the artists have been here for six years at least and we have silly nicknames for each other and have built up a lexicon of words which probably only make sense to Streetwires employees ( one example is a flopile – a hybrid of English and isiXhosa which basically means a bad quality product).

If you’ve read this far, thankyou! And we’ll post some new product information soon!