Besides preserving traditional weaving skills and providing employment, Daliwe Designs bridges the gap between highly skilled rural people and upmarket architects and designers, writes Shirley le Guern.
Daliwe is the Swazi word for nature which is the inspiration behind the woven blinds, carpets, ceiling coverings, lights and decor items that find their way into some of the world’s top hospitality and interior design spaces.
The weaving – using traditional looms – is done at Daliwe Designs’ factory in White River. The panels are then transported to its head office in Cornubia where they are assembled, finished and quality checked.
Daliwe Designs is one of only two in the country that makes both square and round woven grass carpets to measure; and the Durban factory is also developing an ever-growing range of woven lights.
“We’ve built Daliwe into a highly developed business that takes a potentially rough, organic product and turns it into something that can stand out in any seven-star hotel in the world,” explains owner Marianne Pooler.
With a background in molecular biology, she had just returned from teaching science overseas when she was invited to visit by business owners who were looking for someone to grow the business to reach its full potential.
A detour en route to the Kruger Park had the desired effect. “I saw all these women making blinds, rugs and carpets and creating beautiful murals out of grasses and I fell in love with it there and then,” she recalls.
After testing the market by taking samples to 10 Johannesburg designers, she bought a small share of the company in 2004, and within a year her two partners had lost interest in the business and Marianne took over.
At the time, she was living in Johannesburg but regularly travelled to the small Mpumalanga factory. She still visits the larger new factory that she opened in White River in 2020, and runs the head office in Durban.
Daliwe Designs has supplied projects across Africa, the Middle East and the Seychelles. They have created products for the ruler of Dubai as well as for Oprah Winfrey. The Pafuri Makuleke Lodge is a flagship project, but other noteworthy recent ones include Lolebezi Lodge with Fox Brown Creative, the Oppenheimer’s Tswalu Lodge with Savile Row and the Mara Lodge in Kenya.
“Our relationships with our architects and designers are very important. I work closely with them, explaining what we do and opening their minds to bringing nature inside into their environments,” she says.
Marianne also bridges the gap between highly skilled rural people who find it difficult to find markets for their products, and designers and architects wanting high-end organic products but not knowing where to find them or how to ensure they meet stringent project deadlines and specifications.
Most of all, she believes that one of Daliwe Designs’ greatest achievements is preserving traditional weaving skills and providing employment. The number of people employed is project dependent but there is a core weaving network of 15 to 40 weavers.
“Some have been with us for 15 years. They work really hard and make beautiful products. You need to appreciate details like the separation and the straightness of the lines. You require very precise measurements which is extremely difficult to do with an organic product,” she says.
The main raw material used is thoko grass which is harvested in Mpumalanga and then plaited into bundles which the company buys. The same goes for reeds which are collected by locals and sold to the company in two-metre lengths. They are cleaned, cut and either used as is or stripped using a carpet knife so that they can be stained.
Various combinations of these organic materials are used to turn out a variety of different designs that keep pace with ever-evolving design trends.
“At the moment, natural and organic products are the in thing and people are looking for handmade decor items that are made locally rather than imported. Our business really showcases the value of local processes and crafts,” she believes.
FOR MORE INFO:
- Marianne Pooler: 082 815 4067
- marianne@daliwe.co.za
- www.daliwe.co.za