Paper Craft and Design with Themba Masala

Raaswater, Northern Cape

In 2002, Shapiro was employed as a Crafts Development Specialist by the Northern Cape Arts and Culture Council, a statutory body of the Northern Cape Department of Sport, Arts and Culture. During this time, he began working with paper mache crafter, Themba Masala. At the time, Masala had no access to markets and was making paper mache crafts on his own. Masala had no orders coming in for his crafts.

This craft development mentorship lasted for 18 months. During this time all aspects of running a crafts business were explored and implemented, new products were introduced and developed and a production line was established.

The business was introduced to retail outlets and orders were generated. Capacity grew from one crafter to 9 crafters and orders are received by this business on a consistent basis.