An encounter with a luxury leather travel bag in Cape Town’s Waterfront was enough to birth a leathersmith.
With no formal training, Xolelwa Dwadwa relies on her newly acquired skill to provide her with an income.
Dwadwa is based in Maboneng Precinct in Johannesburg, but is originally from Qoboqobo in the Eastern Cape. She became frustrated when she could not find a job after obtaining an agricultural economics degree from the University of Fort Hare.
“I believe the seed was planted in 2017 after I graduated and moved to Cape Town to live with my mum. I remember I went to the Waterfront and I saw a leather travel bag, which was something I had never seen before. There was just something that attracted me to that bag.
“I went inside the shop and I saw this old lady hand-stitching and I was shocked to see her do that.”
It was not until she did her internship in Kimberly, in the Northern Cape, that she pursued her newfound interest.
While doing her internship, she realised that she shared a love for leather with her manager who was making leather belts.
“I became very close with my manager. She came to Johannesburg to do a leather course.”
“I grew up sewing, so for me it was easy to join in. My manager used to ask us to help her stitch the belts she made.”
She recalled making a wallet out of leather that had an oil spill.
“This other time she [my manager] made a bag and oil spilled on it. She was a perfectionist, so she said we should make something out of it because leather was too expensive to be wasted. I asked her to show me how to put on a zip and I made a purse out of the leather bag,” she said.
And with that, her journey of making leather accessories began.
In 2020, with her internship over and now back in the Eastern Cape, she decided to start making the accessories to pass time during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and XD Leather Accessories came to life.
While she said the business runs well enough to pay for her one employee and earn herself a living, her journey has not been without its challenges.
The self-taught entrepreneur said she gets most of her ideas from Pinterest and tutorials on YouTube. “We create pieces that are not only beautiful, but also functional and durable,” said Dwadwa.
While she is currently focusing on XD Leather Accessories, she plans to return to agriculture, her first love one day. ¥
For more information, visit https://xd-leather-accessories.company.site/ or contact Xolelwa Dwadwa at 076 243 6712. You can also reach XD Leather Accessories on Facebook and on Instagram with the handle xd_leatheraccessories
Email
Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp