ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Marisa Fick-Jordan - Craft artist, product designer
South African product designer Marisa Fick-Jordan works with Zulu wire artists to develop a sustainable, worldwide market for their bold and shimmering work.

Why you should listen

Marisa Fick-Jordan is the co-author of Wired, the authoritative work on Zulu wire art. Using castoff telephone wire -- those plastic-coated copper strands you sometimes find outside switching boxes -- practitioners of this art create tightly woven pieces with bold patterning and fields of shimmering color.

Working with these talented African artists, Fick-Jordan has brought this art to the world, developing products and building a distribution network for a worldwide market. The end result: a traditional art form is preserved and developed -- and a village of weavers can earn a living through their art.

More profile about the speaker
Marisa Fick-Jordan | Speaker | TED.com
TEDGlobal 2007

Marisa Fick-Jordan: The wonder of Zulu wire art

Marisa Fick-Jordan: La mirindaĵoj de zulua dratarto

Filmed:
336,911 views

En tiu ĉi mallonga, bildoplena prezentado, Marisa Fick-Jordan montras kiel aro da tradiciaj zuluaj herbteksistinoj kreis tutmondan merkaton por siaj mirindaj verkoj.
- Craft artist, product designer
South African product designer Marisa Fick-Jordan works with Zulu wire artists to develop a sustainable, worldwide market for their bold and shimmering work. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
The decorative use of wire in southern Africa
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La ornama uzo de dratoj en Sud-Afriko
00:15
dates back hundreds of years.
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datiĝas de centoj da jaroj.
00:17
But modernization actually brought communication
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Moderniĝo kuntrenis
elektronikan komunikadon
00:20
and a whole new material, in the form of telephone wire.
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kaj tutnovan materialon: telefonaj dratoj.
00:24
Rural to urban migration meant that newfound industrial materials
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Alurba migrado faris,
ke novaj industriaj materialoj
00:29
started to replace hard-to-come-by natural grasses.
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komencis anstataŭi malfacile
troveblajn nekulturitajn herbojn.
00:33
So, here you can see the change
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Do, konstateblis uzadŝanĝo
00:35
from use -- starting to use contemporary materials.
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-- oni komencis uzi modernajn materialojn.
00:37
These pieces date back from the '40s to the late '50s.
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Tiuj verkoj datiĝas
de la 40-aj kaj 50-aj jaroj.
00:42
In the '90s, my interest and passion for transitional art forms
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En la 90-aj jaroj, mia intereso
pri ŝanĝiĝantaj artformoj
00:46
led me to a new form,
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kondukis min al nova formo, kiu venis
00:48
which came from a squatter camp outside Durban.
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el ladurbo ekster Durbano.
00:50
And I got the opportunity to start working with this community
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Mi havis la oportunon labori kun tiu komunumo
00:54
at that point, and started developing, really,
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kaj entreprenis disvolvan
kaj orientigan laboron
00:57
and mentoring them in terms of scale, in terms of the design.
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pri skalo kaj dizajno.
01:03
And the project soon grew from five to 50 weavers in about a year.
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La projekto rapide kreskis de 5 al
50 teksistinoj en unu jaro.
01:07
Soon we had outgrown the scrap yards, what they could provide,
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Baldaŭ, ni elĉerpis la rubejojn ĉirkaŭ ni
01:11
so we coerced a wire manufacturer to help us,
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kaj turnis nin al dratfabrikanto
por ricevi helpon,
01:14
and not only to supply the materials on bobbins,
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ne nur por la provizo de surbobenaj dratoj
01:17
but to produce to our color specifications.
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sed ankaŭ por la produktado
de koloroj niagustaj.
01:20
At the same time, I was thinking, well,
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Samtempe, mi komencis pensi
01:22
there's lots of possibility here to produce contemporary products,
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pri la multaj ebloj krei
nuntempajn artaĵojn
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away from the ethnic, a little bit more contemporary.
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malpli tradiciajn, ol antaŭe.
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So I developed a whole range around -- mass-produced range --
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Mi do disvolvis tutnovan
amasproduktaron,
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that obviously fitted into a much higher-end decor market
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kiu plaĉis al supera ornamaĵa merkato,
01:37
that could be exported and also service our local market.
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samptempe por en- kaj eksterlandaj aĉetantoj.
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We started experimenting, as you can see, in terms of shapes,
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Ni komencis provi novajn formojn,
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forms. The scale became very important,
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kaj la skalo fariĝis tre grava demando.
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and it's become our pet project. It's successful,
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Tio fariĝis nia plejŝatata
kaj plejsukcesa projekto.
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it's been running for 12 years. And we supply the Conran shops,
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Ĝi ekzistas de 12 jaroj. Ni provizas
la magazConran enojn
01:57
and Donna Karan, and so it's kind of great.
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kaj Donna Karan, do ĝi prosperas.
02:00
This is our group, our main group of weavers.
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Jen niaj ĉefaj teksistinoj.
02:03
They come on a weekly basis to Durban.
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Ili ĉiusemajne venas al Durbano.
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They all have bank accounts.
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Ĉiu havas bankkonton.
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They've all moved back to the rural area where they came from.
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Ili reiris al la kamparo,
de kie ili estis elmigrintaj.
02:09
It's a weekly turnaround of production.
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La produktado estas semajna.
02:11
This is the community that I originally showed you the slide of.
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Jen la komunumo, kiun mi
montris antaŭnelonge.
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And that's also modernized today,
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Ĝi estas moderniĝinta, hodiaŭ,
02:17
and it's supporting work for 300 weavers.
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kaj tie laboras 300 teksistinoj.
02:21
And the rest says it all.
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Kaj la cetero estas elokventa.
02:24
Thank you very much.
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Koran dankon.
02:25
(Applause)
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(Aplaŭdoj)
Translated by Karine Breault
Reviewed by James Piton

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Marisa Fick-Jordan - Craft artist, product designer
South African product designer Marisa Fick-Jordan works with Zulu wire artists to develop a sustainable, worldwide market for their bold and shimmering work.

Why you should listen

Marisa Fick-Jordan is the co-author of Wired, the authoritative work on Zulu wire art. Using castoff telephone wire -- those plastic-coated copper strands you sometimes find outside switching boxes -- practitioners of this art create tightly woven pieces with bold patterning and fields of shimmering color.

Working with these talented African artists, Fick-Jordan has brought this art to the world, developing products and building a distribution network for a worldwide market. The end result: a traditional art form is preserved and developed -- and a village of weavers can earn a living through their art.

More profile about the speaker
Marisa Fick-Jordan | Speaker | TED.com