By Matṧeliso Phulane
Julia Ntsoaole of Mazenod, Ha Sekepe in Maseru district is a crafter with a deep love and passion for art.
Her creations recently caused a social media frenzy with her bag packs which are jestingly referred to as “Ha re eeng Thaba Tseka.”
Ntsoaole ventured into the crafting business in 2019 when she started making bags and earrings from copper wires. But for her business to be well internationally, she started in 2021.
Her business, Juju Couture designs various things such as unique bag packs, side bags, shopping bags, leather shoes, belts, Chinese hats and earrings.
Ntsoaole describes her creativity as a God-given talent since she likes collecting waste materials and think out of the box what she could turn out of them.
Ntsoaole studied Fashion Design in South Africa from 2018 to 2021 with a little encouragement from a couple that noticed her talent.
“They were members of the church I was serving at that time; they noticed me collecting papers, wires and other waste materials. They encouraged me to go to school and study fashion design at LISOF Fashion Design School,” she said.
Apart from that she got more motivated after getting an opportunity to attend a one-week training in Australia in October last year, where she was invited by the Australian Council of Arts through the fashion designing school she attended.
Through that training, Ntsoaole learnt more about the importance of sharing knowledge with other people and motivating them to start their own businesses.
Taking us through the production process of the bag pack, the designer said the first step is to draw different shapes on boxes, then apply varnish on the cut box and let it dry on the sunlight for three minutes.
She then uses any attractive material such as ‘Seshoeshoe’ (representing Basotho culture) with the aim of attracting tourists. The materials are from off cuts she recycles after sewing. A single bag takes about an hour to complete.
Ntsoaole noted that the challenges she has encountered in her business include people copying and faking her work with total disregard for the effort she put into designing it.
“Creativity still seems a major problem for many, that is why I have started doing an outreach initiative in schools in both South Africa and Lesotho, in the process advertising both my work and my business.
“The other reason for the outreach is to encourage entrepreneurship because as Basotho, we always complain that there is lack of employment; I totally disagree with that. We need to think about ways to put bread on the table,” Ntsoaole observed.
She stated that another challenge is price negotiation, especially in black people. They negotiate even if the price is not high, not considering how much time has been spent to create the work.
“I think our clients have to be considerate and look at the product and think about the time that we spent in crafting items. If I have priced a pair of earrings M80 you don’t have to negotiate with me to lower the price to M40.
“But sometimes we end up negotiating because we need money to take home and that is a big challenge,” Ntsoaole indicated.
She urged Basotho to stop undermining their capabilities in business because they are very talented, just that they are afraid to talk and knock on every door to ask for an opportunity to expose their businesses.
“In two years from now I want to have an exclusive manufacturing place to work with other youth, to supply clothing shops,” she added.
Ntsoaole’s products are available at Milco, Maseru. People can also place their orders on WhatsApp number at +277 61897262 or visit her on Facebook on username, Julia Ntsoaole.
