Iron is the most difficult metal to smelt and shape. Harder than copper and stronger than bronze.
When our ancestors mastered the technology to forge iron, they built cities and states.
Jewellery design student Thomas Mosala has emerged from a crucible of another sort — White City, Soweto. If he has any hard-luck stories, he doesn’t let them show.
He is not a child of privilege or handouts. He’s a young man who has been tempered by life and is determined to do Âsomething remarkable.
When he speaks about technical processes — working with metal, shaping it — his usually slow, cautious speech undergoes a remarkable transformation; he becomes a poet, an artist, a scientist. As a jewellery design student at the Soweto Jewellery School, he is required to be all three.
This month Mosala won the New Talent Award in the Thuthuka Jewellery and Tableware Competition for his delicate dessert serving spoons inspired by leaves.
Mosala worked each part of his creation by hand, starting with a sketch and a clay sample. He forged the metal himself, rolling it until he achieved the right thickness for the wires, which he cut and attached to jump rings he had made. “That structure was the hardest part,” he says.
“Our theme for this year’s competition was Viva Africa,” says Thuthuka director Carola Ross, “but we challenged them to make spoons. The downturn in the economy impacted a lot on luxury goods — People aren’t spending as much on contemporary jewellery.
I wanted to find another sector that had income opportunities. Tableware gives these designers access to a lifestyle market.”
The Thuthuka Jewellery development programme (run in partnership with the department of arts and culture) is now in its third year and helps young jewellers at community jewellery schools (Soweto and Ekurhuleni) and tertiary institutions (University of Johannesburg — UJ) to gain not only design and technical skills but also business and marketing skills.
This year the awards attracted a record number of entries. The works of the 89 finalists, including their sketches and models, are on display at UJ’s art gallery.
“It feels amazing to have my work on show,” Mosala says. He hasn’t told his friends about the award yet.
“I’ll tell them one day. If you are the captain of a submarine, you must first struggle underneath the ocean.
Then, when you are ready, you will surface. To show what you can do. For now, I am under.” But, surely, not for long.
The Thuthuka Exhibition runs until October 28 at the UJ Kingsway campus, Auckland Park, Johannesburg