More plates to spin

Oh dear, I'm running the risk of overdosing on handbags. And old LPs. And old license plates. But when I saw some bags in Berwick Street yesterday I felt compelled to find out their story. And now I have, and now I'm going to share it.

According to the Tilnar Art website, these recycled vinyl handbags are made by an artist called Noel Geyer who lives just outside Cape Town. A benefactor donated a box of old LPs, and these inspired Noel's work. He uses basic tools and rents space in a local school to serve as his workshop.  

My continued wanderings of the Tilnar Art site also introduced me to the handbags below that incorporate recycled car number plates and car tyre inner tubes. They’re handmade by Leonard who's from Zimbabwe. Because there's no opportunity for work in Zimbabwe he lives in the outskirts of Cape Town too and sends the money that he earns to his family at home. His vision is to go back to a free Zimbabwe and to run his business from there. I like these bags because the bright spectrum of number plates at Leonard's disposal are cooly abstract in their simplicity.