Best friend duo Natasha Hogg and Marika Jacobs have combined their skills and love for creative arts to not only making beautiful handmade jewellery but also providing a space for jewellery makers to come together and create their own custom pieces.
Under the Stoep Designs brand, they showcase and sell a stunning collection of handmade products including leather bags, ceramic mugs, bowls, woven baskets and lamp shades.
At their location at Lavender House, opposite the Lavender Blue market, Stoep Designs offers a creative space for jewellery makers to share skills and designs as well as a retail space where one can drop for high quality handmade products.
Stoep Designs offers various workshops for jewellery makers in and around East London to learn to make necklaces, bracelets and keyrings.
“It is very important to showcase the talent we have locally. Working with those people is amazing.
“Each Eastern Cape product has a story and when people come in, we can share that story with them and you realise how much it means to support the creator,” Hogg said.
The workshops are run by highly skilled master beadwork artisans, Yolanda Ginya and Sivuyile Dani. Both are experienced in beadwork and both heavily influenced by Xhosa traditional culture.
Dani, who began beading in 2018, says she is very excited for the future of the Stoep Designs jewellery workshops.
“I am excited to watch people learn something new and be creative. I love the colours and the process of thinking up something and making it come to life.
“In some ways it brings you closer to God because you are a creator too. This space is perfect because it is so therapeutic and offers a beautiful energy that gives us daily inspiration to create,” Dani said.
“We support local handmade products and will promote artists and crafters by showcasing and selling their handmade products in our shop. We are driven by the value of sustainability of the planet, of people and of livelihoods. This can be seen in our product range and sourcing practices,” Jacobs said.
Bookings for the workshops on offer can be made via email hello@stoepdesigns.co.za.

