Crafting a living from art

Malawi’s Lake Shore districts are one big paradise for handicraft shoppers. They are a home to dozens of independent dealers who offer handmade, hand-carved, hand-woven, hand-stitched and hand-painted items from all over the country.
From wooden statues, ornaments to bowls, implements, jewelries and shoes they all in have in stock.
Nkhotakota is one of the districts which is endowed with a huge presence if handcrafts.
One artist in the district who is eking a living out of selling handmade crafts is Eric Mafuta.

While torn fabric, worn-out tires and exotic seeds appear as junk to the ordinary eye, Mafuta is using that to create different pieces of arts of all shapes and sizes.
What began as a youthful interest in making crafts for himself has grown into a fruitful business and love of art, changing his life in ways he never anticipated.
“At first was just doing acting and poetry until last year when I started to make earrings and the necklaces just to pass time. Now I do shoe and purse coating, I make slippers, bags, jewelleries among others,” he said in an interview.
The 34-year-old, who is passionate about art and craft, mostly uses beads, twine, wires, shells to come up with the crafts. He is able to make money that supplements his life as a volunteer at Nkhotakota District Hospital.
“I do make enough money from your sweat though there are times people will bargain a lot just because the things are handmade. I work the stuff from a scratch apart from a few coatings that I make on certain handcrafts just to redecorating them,” he said.
His business comes from the advertisements he runs through social media.
I don’t have a designated place and at first it was hard but once people have known and appreciated the work, business has been good. The only challenge though is that at times we are held back due to scarcity of some materials,” he affirmed.
Since November last year Eric has self has self taught the art of making crafts from what is perceived to be junk. With the help of his girlfriend, the artist is running a company Elric Craft and Fashion Designs.
“At first she used to look much into marketing. Now she has also started making the stuff. Our plan is to have our own shop because surely, we want to grow big. We want other people to get employed in our company. We are looking at living our dream by next year. It will be based in Lilongwe,” said the artist, who studied HIV and Aids management.