The yellow brick road, the start of Shongololo Studio pt3

I decided to hit the road to Clarens early that Saturday morning the weather was perfect and the drive would not be very long. I have never been employed in a sales position, and I have never before thought myself to be a sales person, but in order for me to establish some business I knew I had to go out and see if I could manage to sell some of my skulls. I have always been very confident, and I believe in my dream so much that I did not feel nervous at all, I approached people and ask them if they would be interested in purchasing some of my art work. Upon my arrival I was amazed by the beauty of this village, and I couldn’t believe how many shops were situated there. I decided to first have some breakfast, and had settled myself down at a little restaurant. The staff was very friendly, the menu amazing I decided to go have a meal at that particular restaurant every time I visit the village as there were so many delicious varieties on their menu to choose from. Also a first I have ever seen on a menu Mieliepap and milk @ 20 bucks.

With breakfast done I head out to almost every single shop to see what they are selling and ask the shops if they would like to buy some of my animal skulls and what they in general through of my creations. People absolutely loved this idea, something they have not seen before, they love the colours and designs of the skulls and I leave the village with an order of ten skulls to be delivered ASAP. I met Verma a kick ass chick that owns the only tattoo shop in Clarens, and she had told me about a vulture feeding ground situated in the Golden Gate National Park not too far from Clarens. Vera is one of the people that have ordered a skull from me. After I leave Clarens with a lot of excitement and even more ideas streaming through my mind I decide to go see this vulture feeding ground. As Murphy’s law would have it, it took a couple of minutes longer than expected, maybe even an hour.... I am what you call in Afrikaans: “Rigting Bifok” and I have more than once gotten lost using the GPS on my phone :/ so this was not surprising to me at all.

When I eventually reached the vulture feeding ground I was not too impressed, for some reason I had thought about a more dramatic scene like the Lion King movie, but all there was, was a half rotten dead carcass of what looked like a Blue Wildebeest. There was not even one vulture in sight, apparently it was too windy.  I did however come across some bones that seemed to have been lying there in the heat of the sun for many months or even years when i walked back to my car. I decided to take some of those bones with me to see if I could come up with some other ideas of what I could paint. Those rangers were right it was windy and the wind was quite chilly, none the less I took off my jacket and filled it with as many bones as I could. I then returned to Fouriesburg where I ended my journey with a trip to the Crystal Caves situated on Debbie’s Farm. It was about a 25 minute walk and definitely worth it, I have thought about doing a whole series of these skulls and I wanted to collect some crystals and stones that I could use at a later stage on some of my creations. The climb down to the cave was a bit high for my comfort, but I managed to overcome my fear and collected many stones and crystals.

I was planning on coming back to JHB on Tuesday, but I changed my mind on my walk back to the farm after leaving the crystal caves. I left Fouriesburg with great ideas, hundreds more than when I originally went there. I am more confident than ever that I will achieve my dream! I have made hundreds of notes over the last couple of days, and when I get back home I need to start putting all my ideas together. 

Before going to Fouriesburg, I had already gone to see a Taxidermist close to where I live. The owner is a very kind man with years of knowledge in Taxidermy, the set up at his shop is awesome and I never expected it to be so big, I have met all the staff told them about my idea and they are all intrigued. I had bought three skulls and I will start painting on a daily basis soon. The skulls I buy from the Taxidermist have been cleaned and treated so it is safe and ready for me to use. Also, there won’t be any nasty surprises down the line like worms or bugs for what would be the unfortunate and most probably pissed off art lover. The Taxidermist had also given me two raw horns to experiment on. These horns have been stripped of the outer layer, only the bone inside is visible and it has been cleaned, but not polished which is what they are currently doing for their clients. These horns really are beautiful and I have already decided that I would use different Henna designs to paint on them.

Monday morning my brother shows me a couple of Logo designs he has come up with. I decide on which Logo design I am going to use, the Logo design I settle on is vibrant, colourful and bold - pleasing to the eye and with a Name like Shongololo Studio it definitely catches the eye, any person seeing this being it outside a shop, online or at an art gallery will most probably be curious to find out more about this Shongololo.  The name Shongololo was one of three possibilities we came up with the week before, most South-Africans knows what a shongololo is, the Zulu/Xosa word for a millipede. My children also call millipedes, shongololo’s.  They absolutely love the name we chose for the studio and the girls had a good giggle about it. I hang out with Snoot for the day and we design my business card and pamphlet and by the end of the day I have also contacted a couple of places to get quotes for the cost of the printing.

Over the next couple of days I start creating my third animal sugar skull and I also start working on other ideas with the bones that I have collected at the vulture feeding ground, these bones have not been treated, but because it has been exposed to the intense heat of the sun for such a long amount of time it is safe to use. I had scrubbed them with water and soap before I started painting on them to get rid of access sand and I had also primed them with some PVA paint.  It didn’t take my imagination long to run wild and I came up with a few possibilities of more Shongololo’s. It seems to me that since this idea started I have come up with many more ideas about different creations, business opportunities, the ultimate dream has grow bigger! It becomes easier for my ideas to flow and thoughts become endless possibilities.

I created a fishlike looking Shongololo out of a jaw bone it took quite a while to paint but it looks really sweet.  I remember that when I was busy with Snoot sorting through pictures and checking out websites and blogs to get an idea of what other people were doing we had seen a design of a sugar whale, my new creation reminded me of that whale and now I am thinking I could later on when I find more places I can organise bones from possibly start creating a range of these creatures. All designs one of a kind.

 

At this moment I am staying with my mom and my youngest brother who has his own Tattoo Studio – Laarnie Tattoo’s, most of the time.  Snoot, as I like to call my youngest brother is assisting on the design and running of my webpage, and in a way my dream and his dream will be connected. I have asked Snoot to start working on the design of my Logo whilst I’m on this trip, he has studied Graphic Design and I know he is more than capable of coming up with some great ideas. He has also given me most of my tats, and I have walked away a satisfied customer after every tattoo.