What Women are Making in West Africa: Mali
I made a new friend from Mali here in Barcelona. Just around the corner from the church he has a store in bright yellow with:
- handmade watering cans of recycled tins
- plastic woven rugs in all sizes and colors
- a cloth patchwork map of Africa sewn on a pillowcase
- huge colorful straw baskets
- wire mobiles
- and best of all, these bracelets which are melted plastic shoes made into necklaces (made to layer) and these bracelets. In the store he has snapshots of women sitting on overturned buckets working over a flame.
Cost:- 3 € / 5
- 5 € / 10.
The owner is working on opening a boutique hotel in Mali which I’m sure will be just as uniquely stylish and joy-inducing as his store
Of course my interest is in female artisans — he has assembled a team of fellow craftspeople of the female variety who work on projects for him for his store. He imports in huge canisters and lives a happy life with his Catalan girlfriend and young son. He’s come a long way through his years spent homeless in Paris after his papers ran out and his pride prevented him from crashing on friends couches for very long. He read, he worked on his craft, and was patient; making his way to dishwasher, then supplier to an African boutique (now closing) in my old Marais neighborhood, to a store of his own here in Barca.
Because of him, Mali is my first entry in What Women Make! Welcome!
-Chauncey Zalkin
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2 Responses to “What Women are Making in West Africa: Mali”
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Hi,
What a great site. I bought some of these melted sneaker bracelets from Mali in Paris. Many of them have broken and I want to get more but can’t find them. Any leads?
thanks,
Deborah
There was a great African design boutique behind Santa Maria del Mar church here in Barcelona which is where I first saw them but they are closing! Everything closes in Barcelona these days. I will let you know when I find them. If you follow my links you can find Mariam and you can contact her to ask her about them. She is trying to start to import them to Europe.