Dabanga de Mozambique

Posted on September 12, 2013 by aurumeve in Latin America, Pan Africa // 7 Comments

Dabanga dos Santos is a self-taught artist, who like many that inspire us came from a completely different background before decorative arts. Dabanga was a Microbiologist at the Faculty of Medicine of the Eduardo Mondlane University in her hometown of Mozambique researching endemic cholera before moving to jewelry!

Part of her inspiration for doing so was having the freedom to independently achieve her career and personal goals by doing what she loves; she continues to uses profits from her line to actively support her social and healthcare fundraising efforts for autism and Habitat for Humanity.

As Dabanga points out, her work is a “contemporary fusion of world cultures that exude a vintage aesthetic”. While her work beautifully and simply illustrates her southeast African culture, a very light Western vintage aesthetic can be felt; Dabanga even gives a patina to her metal pieces to achieve this.

What I truly enjoy about her work is the quality craftsmanship; the vivid, fantastic colouring and the balanced combination of elegance, boldness and Mozambique style.

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Earrings

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Bracelet

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Necklaces

All images courtesy of Dabanga.

Liz // January 9, 2014 at 2:35 AM // Reply

The jewellery is extremely stunning! I love how the colors are very bold and have a natural look to them, like we Africans.
http://www.thefabdiaries.weebly.com

aurumeve // January 9, 2014 at 8:01 AM // Reply

Yes Liz, bold and bright! 🙂

ODOTMDOT AKA FEW CHAINZ // September 19, 2013 at 11:31 AM // Reply

Thats dope, very evolved thinking if you ask me. Its great to see how art at the scale of jewels and other wearable garments are adjusting to the demands for sustainability and eco-conciousness. Great job on finding these artist and jewelers that are taking there work into many dimensions.

aurumeve // September 30, 2013 at 4:21 PM // Reply

Thank you ODOTMDOT aka FEW(soon to be MANY) CHAINZ, Sustainability is where we are going ; I’m glad we’re moving onwards and upwards artistically and conciously! 🙂 Thank you for the appreciation!

ODOTMDOT AKA FEW CHAINZ // September 13, 2013 at 3:23 PM // Reply

Dabanga, Aurumeve, #Aurumeve, I am greatly curious as to what type of materials are being used in these pieces. At first glance they appear to be beads, then with further review you see a comparable rock like formation to them. Then when you look at the tonal variations of the colors you see that they could possibly be dried fruits, berries or nuts that have been hand painted by little ants with buckets of vibrant paint colors making sure they do not miss a single cubic millimeter of surface to insure the best paint job. The suspense is killing me……
#Mozambique
#Suspense
#Dabanga
#Microbiology

aurumeve // September 16, 2013 at 12:27 PM // Reply

ODotMdot! Believe it or not, these particular pieces from Dabanga are made from recycled newspaper and bark cloth from the Mutaba tree (tree and its bark have a very interesting design history dating back over 18k years)! They are part of an eco friendly collection in which Dabanga and a great organization, Mushana <— def worth checking out, collaborated. It's a tedious handmade but clearly visually and socially rewarding process using natural and organic materials called bead bonding, co created with womwen in Uganda that involves soaking, compressing, a vegan compound for dyeing, and sun-drying the beads. Socially concious to a tee.
#newrules
#doitforthepeople
#Mutaba