Reuben and Melanie explore the Eastern Cape

International travel - that gift and privilege that many of us have been unable to enjoy for 2 years due to the global pandemic. Despite having covid-19 at the beginning of February, a month later, still recovering from its effects, I was fortunate enough to travel to South Africa with my cousin to visit my elderly aunt and see my sister, another cousin and families again. In my hand luggage I carried 4 dolls. Reuben and Melanie, two of our Sasha family, came with all their Shweshwe clothes, though only one outfit each actually got photographed. I had intended dressing them in their Basuto and Xhosa outfits (which I made for the 2017 Sasha Celebration Weekend) while in the Eastern Cape. Joy and Kolisi (two of my Kruselings) came too. But only the Sasha dolls managed to get out and about with me for some photos on a couple of occasions. My energy levels for doll photography was vastly reduced as I recovered from the virus.

While in Cape Town, my cousin and I visited The Waterfront. One of the stalls in the big craft building featured slot together dolls houses made by a local small business. Ikhaya crafts make eco-friendly toys to promote play, I was interested to note that they had two ranges - what looked like a 1:12th scale range (for 7-13cm size dolls) and a Barbie doll size range. The Kruselings are between the two sizes, though possibly some of the Barbie furniture might have suited them, but I didn't have them with me at the time to try them for size. The dolls houses, their furniture and accessories were very well designed and nicely made (laser cut). 

Ikhaya crafts stand at The Waterfront

Ikhaya crafts stand showing some of the dolls house rooms and accessories for sale

Ikhaya crafts outfits for Barbie dolls

Barbie dolls wearing some Ikhaya crafts outfits

My aunt lives in the Eastern Cape Town of Makhanda/Makana (Grahamstown), so after spending two and half days with my sister, cousin and niece in the Karoo at a game reserve (where the warm, dry salty air helped my lungs) then a few days in Cape Town with my sister; my cousin and I flew to Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha), hired a car and drove to Makhanda to stay for several days. 

Makhanda nestles in the hills of the Eastern Cape

Grahamstown / Makhanda Cathedral in the heart of this Eastern Cape town

It was only on our last day there that I did some doll photography. The previous day I had visited the History Building of the Albany Museum as I had vivid memories of discovering its displays, which had included playthings from the past, as a child. Reuben and Melanie came in my bag as I had hoped to photograph them looking at the displays, but photography in the museum was forbidden, so I spent time reading the information and looking but not taking photos. 

The first room had a fascinating display about the last 200 years of the cultural influences on the area, showing the experiences of the indigenous populations and the European immigrants, including the 1820 settlers. During the apartheid era in the 1980s, when I had last visited the museum, the focus had very much been on upholding the legacy of the 1820 settlers and all they had done to build the town. This newer display was more balanced as it revealed additional perspectives on the evolution of the Eastern Cape meeting of peoples and cultures though it looked tired and some of the labelling was hard to read (it needs refreshing, but funds are limited). 

There was also a gallery about the character and story of Makhanda/Makana the Xhosa prophet (1780-1819), a gallery with some of the artefacts and furniture of local families (but far fewer toys and playthings than I remembered seeing in gallery above that space back in the 1980s), an Art gallery upstairs and a fascinating display about Rev James Arthur Calata (1895-1983) who had done much for musical education (he founded a choir and composed music for it) and was also the first black canon at Grahamstown Cathedral. 

As we were leaving Makhanda, Reuben and Melanie had a brief visit to the Monument, which was built to commemorate the 1820 settlers but is also the venue which hosts the famous National Arts Festival events each year. It contains theatres, an atrium, conference facilities and stands on the hill above Rhodes University and the Botanical Gardens. I remember the Monument when it was very new. 

The Monument above Makhanda

Entrance to the Monument

Inside the Monument:
"Nor wild Romance nor Pride allured me here:
Duty and Destiny with equal voice
Constrained my steps: I had no other choice...
Something for Africa to do or say." (Pringle)

Inside the Monument atrium

Commemorative plaque about Nelson Mandela's visit to the Monument in 1996

A replica of a cow given to Nelson Mandela when he visited the Monument in 1996.

The Monument's position provides fabulous views of the town below and this is what Reuben and Melanie saw.

Reuben and Melanie standing on the steps outside the Monument to gaze at the town below

It was quiet on the hill above Makhanda as Reuben and Melanie looked at the town below

Melanie and Reuben in their Shweshwe outfits on the steps beside the Monument above Makhanda

Reuben and Melanie above Makhanda

Our next destination was an AirBnB house on the banks of the Sunday's River. We arrived to enjoy the sunset on the river and I left the following morning for my flight to Cape Town. Melanie and Reuben explored the cactus garden at the back of the house, which had been dramatically lit in the evening and also looked wonderful in the morning light. I was able to photograph the nearly full moon, with its Southern Hemisphere face (much more symmetrical than its Northern Hemisphere face).

The cactus garden at dusk

Just after sunset on the Sunday's River

The cactus garden at night

Moonrise above the Sunday's River

The Sunday's river after sunrise

"Look Melanie, the river is so wide" said Reuben

"I wish we could go out on a boat" sighed Reuben to Melanie as they gazed at the Sunday's river

Sun rising over the Sunday's river

"Look at this amazing cactus Reuben, it is taller than us" exclaimed Melanie

"I cannot even see the top" said Melanie

"This one is more our height, like a cushion, but I wouldn't want to sit on it" said Reuben to Melanie

The top of the very tall cactus

Bird feeding on the cactus flowers in the morning

I took the doll sized Shakespeare Dream Coat I've been making as my contribution to the Susanna Lewis raffle doll prize for the 2022 Sasha Festival to work on while in South Africa, I did manage to do a bit of the embroidery while in SA though not a lot.

I bought some more Shweshwe fabric from my favourite little shop Mnandi Textiles in Observatory, Cape Town. The colours and patterns are such fun, maybe some of the doll family will gain more shweshwe outfits sometime soon, though only once my contribution for the Dolly Jolly raffle and the Shakespeare Dream Coat are complete.

Jenny, Lexie, Annie and Emily's Cape Town adventures

One big advantage of the size of the Heather Maciak dolls is that they are small enough to travel.  I took my Jenny and Lexie to Washington DC and Vancouver when I visited those cities for work conferences because they fitted easily into my hand luggage.  It is risky taking porcelain dolls on travels though, and with the arrival of Emily and Annie I did wonder if they would become the travelling dolls instead, but somehow Jenny and Lexie were persistent in persuading me that they should come too when I got the amazing opportunity to present at a conference in the city where I was born!

One March morning the four girls looked out of the hotel window at the City of Cape Town.  They had even brought their own dolls with them for the trip.

Emily, Annie, Lexie and Jenny look out towards The Waterfront and the sea

Their hotel window gave a fine view of Signal Hill

And Lion's Head could also be seen from the hotel room

After the conference was over, the dolls came with me to stay in a private house in the suburbs with my sister and family. With me the dolls visited my former school teacher who had her childhood dolls restored then had sent to a relative with children.  The dolls visited one of my first school friends at her home as we reminisced about our childhood and discussed the changes she was making to her home, then admired their tiny sweaters and shoes.  Her mother had been one of my knitting inspirations.

Jenny, Lexie, Annie and Emily also visited my puppetry teacher artist Jill Joubert (who was a founder member of the Handspring Puppet Company, which later made the famous War Horse) but I didn't take photos of my dolls with the puppets in her home. Jill had taught my sister and I how to make rod and glove puppets at a memorable 5 day workshop during our school holidays in September 1985. Jill enjoyed looking at my dolls and the miniature knitting I had done for them.  While visiting Jill I saw her puppets for the Briar Rose story, which she had made around the time her daughter became a teenager.  Jill's version of the story concentrates on the other fairies who gave wishes to Briar Rose (see Page 209 of a Thesis "South African Puppetry for the Theatre since 1975" by Zuanda Badenhorst).  Jill also makes incredible wood sculptures from found objects.

Jill Joubert's 'Briar Rose' puppets, made from papier mache and cloth

Earlier in the week I had visited Fabric City for some plain fabric for printing on for another doll project.  Although Fabric City was four floors high (bigger than Dressew in Vancouver) with a vast array of fabric and haberdashery, their collection of African print fabrics was limited and Jill was able to tell me about the shop to visit nearby. so the next day the dolls were taken on an outing to a wonderful fabric shop, called Mnandi Textiles and Design, in Station Road, Observatory.

Mnandi Textile and Design shop - an amazing variety of patterns and colours

The 'fat quarters' of different shweshwe fabrics neatly displayed for easy choosing

Some ties made from shweshwe fabric along with other fabrics in Mnandi Textiles and Design shop

Emily (red hair) and Annie (black hair) were allowed to help choose some African print fabric, including the shweshwe fabric made in Cape Town (such as Three Cats designs by de Gama).

"Annie, what do you think of the fabric we've chosen?"

"I love the patterns and colours Emily"

"Do you think we might get clothes made from some of these fabrics?"

Later that day all four dolls went with me to explore the world famous Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, where I met up with two school friends and the children of one of them. Although my friends and I took the dolls on the tree canopy walkway 'the Boomslang' (which means tree snake, because the tree top walkway snakes through the canopy), I didn't dare take them out of the travel bag for fear of dropping them into the undergrowth below (especially as the tree top walk sways).  So they had to wait until we were back on the ground before they could venture out to find Colonel Bird's Bath in a lovely shady place in the gardens.  I have happy memories of visiting this spot on a school trip and at other times with my family when I was a child. My friend's very shy younger daughter helped me place the dolls in a good position to view the bird shaped bath.

"Annie, come to look at this bird shaped bathing pond" called Emily

"Wow, it looks cold" said Annie

Colonel Bird's Bath in Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

After visiting the gardens we enjoyed tea and cakes at the Kirstenbosch tearoom with my school friends. One friend showed me the miniature wooden doll I had made and given to her before I left for England.  Her two young daughters were keen to help dress Annie and Emily in their new summer dresses which had I made before the trip.  I made their dresses from fabric I bought in Vancouver at a fabric shop in Granville Island a few days before visiting Dressew with Heather Maciak.  This particular piece of fabric has a gorgeous miniature tie dye pattern, not too big to be overwhelming for an 8.5 inch doll. They had new Boneka sandals too, one pair dark pink, the other light pink.

I had also made similar sun dresses for Jenny and Lexie from some light fabric with red leaf patterns on it.  They borrowed the clear plastic 'jellies' sandals from Florida and California Patsi, who did not join us on the trip to Cape Town.

Soon the dolls were enjoying a picnic on the lawn at Kirstenbosch, with the glorious backdrop of part of the Table Mountain range eastern slopes (Window Buttress and Fernwood Peak).  The lawn was green because the gardens have their own non-potable water supply so are able to use sprinklers even though Cape Town has been suffering from drought for some months because the winter rains last year didn't fill the dams as much as usual.

Emily, Jenny, Annie and Lexie sat back to enjoy their Kirstenbosch picnic as the sun sank behind the mountain

The grass was a bit long for their picnic rug (a childhood handkerchief) so the cups and saucers didn't want to stand up properly but the girls didn't mind too much, they were too busy enjoying being in summer dresses at the end of a long hot day.

On their final morning in Cape Town the dolls went to see Table Mountain from the front, by visiting the viewing spot at Signal Hill.

Emily, Jenny, Annie and Lexie with Table Mountain and its tablecloth

Emily, Jenny, Annie and Lexie in their summer dresses in front of Table Mountain

The girls were lucky to see the top cable car station on Table Mountain as the tablecloth was mostly rolling over the mountain top that morning.  The cable car was still running but we decided not to go up as the magnificent view would have been partly obscured by the clouds.

While I was in Cape Town I started knitting a purple hat to match Lexie's sweater.  I had intended knitting a little on the flight home, but the restrictions at the airport about sharp objects in hand luggage meant the knitting had to go in my hold luggage (no such restriction on the flight from Heathrow with the same airline). Also in my hold luggage returning home was a wooden decoupage box decorated and given to me by my other school friend who had joined us on the Kirstenbosch gardens afternoon. I've decided that this box will belong to my Heather Maciak dolls for their treasures.  I've known this friend since our first day at primary school and she wore the same uniform as me in those days which I later copied in Sasha doll size for the Back to School swap in 2013.  Her grandmother made me my first knitted doll when I was six and I regret that I no longer have that doll, her clothes and her basket bed. Another knitting inspiration.

It was very special to be able to extend my work trip to Cape Town to spend time with family and friends and visit places I knew long ago.

Annie, Lexie, Jenny and Emily in their summer dresses

Annie, Lexie, Jenny and Emily with the Kirstenbosch bag

Annie and Emily show off their new sweaters and summer dresses