Meet the Designers - Ndau Jewellery & Leatherware Part 1

The Elephant's Walk Shopping Village is not only the home of the Ammonite Gallery but is also the studio workshop base of sterling silver jewellery label Ndau. Tucked in a secluded corner of the village complex, designers Christie Halsted, Kelly Landrey and Gail Van Jaarsveldt create truly beautiful lost wax cast silver pieces, combining these with exotic leathers, semi precious stones and antique trade beads in their leather & jewellery factory.

Kelly Landrey and some of the team in the workshop

Master precious metalsmith Joe Mpofu, along with his team, brings their unique vision to life and works hand in hand with leather craftsman John Mphuwa on their combination designs. 

Joe and silversmiths in studio

John and fellow leatherworkers

All of the Ndau silver pieces are hand cast using the lost wax method. Basically this involves the delicate detailed creation of a wax model of the item to be cast. Once several of these are ready, they are attached to a wax "tree" and set in investment (similar to plaster of paris). The wax is then melted out at high temperatures leaving empty shapes in the exact detail of the original wax model. Molten silver is poured in down the "tree" channel and sets in the shape of the original wax model.

Smelting the silver



Pouring the liquid molten silver into the flask

These castings are separated out and individually hand polished until the gleaming sterling silver emerges from its' chrysalis of investment. These sterling silver pieces are then combined with beads, shells, crystals, precious stones and all forms of leathers to create the Ndau Jewellery Collection.

The gorgeous finished item

In the next post, you'll meet each individual Ndau designer, so keep following!