An Invisible Thread
Eugenie Drakes and I have a lot in common, and our paths have crisscrossed for at least two decades. We have both spent our whole lives in Johannesburg. We are both interested in the creative industries, although I took the path of academe and later hospitality and heritage-making, while Eugenie worked in the arena of developing craft skills in rural communities, mentoring and now tour guiding.
Dare I say we share outspokenness in common, love to laugh and both enjoy getting out on mini adventures in our home city. So we jumped at the opportunity for a day of reclaiming our streets (in this case Main Street in the inner city) under a Jozi my Jozi initiative on a beautiful autumnal day in mid-April. But more of that in my next blog post.
Eugenie Drakes’ list of accolades and achievements is long and impressive
She has spent her life moving fluidly between worlds — from remote rural workshops to global stages, from conceptualizing handmade objects to growing skills and people’s confidence. She founded a retail store, Piece, in 2000 and has worked for the rich and famous. No lesser celebs than Princess Charlene (of Monaco), Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, Elton John, Fern Mallis (Founder of NY Fashion Week), and local artists such as Lira and Unathi Msingana, sport fashion items designed by Piece.
As a specialist in women’s arts and crafts she has been involved in Trade and Investment summits
More recently, she has turned her attention to introducing Jozi’s hidden gems to tourists and locals alike.
I’ve wanted to know more detail about Eugenie’s journey so decided to put Eugenie ‘on the spot’ by asking her some questions. Eugenie is tall and statuesque, and she can carry off “dramatic and bold” with style. So this is where I started.
L.D.: Eugenie, if someone met you for the first time today, what would they notice before you said a word?
E.D. The red thread ring …
An aside at another time “it’s my satellite dish to my angels”
L.D. You’ve spoken elsewhere about “riding a spiral from rural makers to high-end global clients”. What do you think are the crucial elements needed to ride this spiral from a local aesthetic to a more global aesthetic. And I am not asking here about the technical and crafting skills but the wham, the wow, the breathtaking, that so many of your collaborative pieces have provided.
E.D. It’s founded on authenticity. It requires and understanding of the ways the rural context works and understanding the ways the global world works and then forming the bridge between them. I tell the crafters if somebody special has bought one of their pieces. It leads to a sense of pride and ownership.
Eugenie gives an example of a young woman who, while working as beautician in an upmarket lodge in Tanzania, gave no less a luminary than Oprah Winfrey a massage treatment. When Oprah hosted 12 friends for her 60th birthday in Hawaii, she flew these “magic hands” across to Hawaii. Intimidated and overwhelmed, the masseuse said to Eugenie: “What can I possibly give someone like Oprah”. Eugenie found a small copper wire and bead hut from Msinga. They took photographs of the village and of the people living in there. To this day this small but meaningful hut sits proudly in Oprah’s home she calls her sanctuary. “The authenticity of the maker makes linking connections with the receiver”. (This word “authenticity” is a leit-motif throughout our chat.)
L.D. At Piece you mentored and worked with Beauty Maswanganyi and Thabo Nkuna. Do you think a “good eye” is something that can be taught, or only sharpened?
E.D You can teach a skill, but it is the passion of the maker which makes a piece. All the created pieces carry energy.
L.D Someone once called you “the midwife for people’s dreams.” How do you know when to push someone — and when to step back?
Eugenie unfolds a marvellous metaphor: I never push as such. I hold my hands behind her (the maker’s) back (Eugenie demonstrates). And I suggest that she puts one foot forward outside the space of her body. When she is ready, she can put the next foot forward. And so it goes – always forward, never back.
L.D. Do you think of your tour guiding as a new chapter, a reinvention — or a distillation of everything you’ve done before?
With Eugenie’s customary “emphaticness”: It’s my life story. I grew up in Jozi.
I start to read out her very lengthy and impressive CV which she graciously dismisses saying
for me this means nothing, it’s about people’s stories.
So to sum her up: a force to be reckoned with, passionate about Jozi, inspired by the youth as the hope for the future, a believer that objects carry the energy of the maker, a deep commitment to the authenticity of people’s stories and their journeys, and a determined avoider of all things negative.
