Precious Plastics
I founded and managed the Precious Plastics space at The Coloured Cube, in Johannesburg, with the support of the company and in collaboration with an industrial engineer: Tim Slabolepszy. It is an open source and decentralised project. Get started at www.preciousplastics.com
Precious Plastic workshop at Boitumelo Sewing Project
The Coloured Cube and myself collaborated with many organisations including Boitumelo Sewing Project, in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, to share creative skills development workshops focused on up-cycling and recycling plastic waste. Faith Ncube, whom I trained in plastic fusion started a micro-enterprise fusing plastic and selling sheets to a local bookbinding company.
Kids Market Make Off
An initiative funded by the National Arts Council of South Africa and in collaboration with The Coloured Cube. I taught 30 Grade 6 school children from Jeppe Preparatory School, in Johannesburg, different up-cycling techniques inspired by Precious Plastics. The children were introduced to creative thinking, innovation and entrepreneurship through making whilst promoting environmental awareness within our communities. This involved a series of workshops, with the children, towards making and selling their products at the Victoria Yards monthly market.
Precious Plastic hand made goods
Produced with various communities during making workshops I facilitated.
The Makers Way Project (MWP)
Is an initiative supported by the US Embassy Consulate South Africa and made possible by JICP, The Coloured Cube, Maker City, Makers Valley Collective, makers and local residents who are working together to make the Makers Valley a better place to live, work and experience collective wellbeing for all. I was the Ground Level Project Manager for Phase 1 and part of Phase 2 of this project which involved collaboration and building partnerships with residents, youth, artists, business owners and community leaders towards ground- up, holistic interventions for shared well-being.
MWP Stakeholder Engagement Session 1 & 2: The Hello Project
We took the streets at various hotspots where locals gather including the park, shebeens, spaza shops, soccer fields and Makers’ Valley Hubs. Locals were approached and asked to share their greetings in their home language and write in down on a canvas flag which were later hung at the MWP launch.
MWP Stakeholder 3: Power Pitch
The Power Pitch event encouraged youth to share their community focused entrepreneurial ideas in exchange for constructive criticism, mentorship and support from local makers/businesses.
MWP Stakeholder Engagement Session 5: Clean & Green
Approximately 25 participants representing various organisations interested in agriculture, and more generally “Clean & Green” interventions, were invited to present their initiatives and share their ideas and concerns. This included urban farmers, the Juskei River Rejuvenation Project, Water for the Future, local photographer Nokulunga Hlatshwayo working with waste pickers, engineers from the University of Johannesburg and more.
MWP Stakeholder Engagement Session 6: Safety
The Makers Valley comprises a diverse population coming from many parts of Africa and speaking multiple languages. This session focused on gathering local immigrants from the surrounding areas to tell them about the Makers Way project and invite their participation. This included more than 35 participants comprising of church leaders and their following, other group leaders and their following, and immigrants (youth and elders) speaking Swahili, French and Portuguese.
Augmented Reality Workshop
This workshop was designed by The Coloured Cube using the Vuforia Application. I managed and facilitated multiple versions of this workshop at different venues including The Coloured Cube workshop space and the Wits Art Museum.
Augmented Reality workshop at The Coloured Cube
Vuforia Lion
An example of what the augmented reality Vuforia application did with a coloured in lion drawing.
CHRISANTHA CHETTY 