As part of Cape Town Creative Week (which took place 15 – 23 Sep), The Woodstock Foundry had an open studios session where everyone was welcome to pop in for a visit to discover all the creative spaces housed within this building which dates back to 1903.

The Woodstock Foundry is a recently refurbished heritage building on Albert Road which has become home to various creatives specialising in things like design, jewellery, furniture, decor, lifestyle & art.  I was actually given the heads up about the open studios evening by Lauren Fowler who is an illustrator, graphic designer and as she puts it “thing maker” who has a studio at the foundry called Lost is a place too.  Lauren’s work includes anything from corporate logos to wedding invites.  I’ve taken a few piccies from her website to show you because her studio was jam-packed on the night:

Photo credit: all from http://www.laurenfowler.co.za

But before one got too stuck into all the creative exploration, The Foundry folks also ensured that there were lots of refreshments in the form of Creation & Hartenberg wines, Lady Bonin tea smoothies and soft serve ice creams.  Yum!

Dunno about you guys, but I definitely absorb things better with a glass of wine in hand…

Now let me give a quick rundown of the other awesome things you’ll find at the Foundry. First up, The Lobby Hair Shop, which is a modern unisex salon but with a great old school barber shop feel:

Very cool

Next door you’ll find Selah.   Selah is a Hebrew word meaning “pause here and reflect”.  This is the space of Andrew Breitenberg who specialises in street art across Africa which invokes thinking in quite a special way.  For example below I’ve taken two pieces from his website.  The first is a piece he did in Gambia, a country which is heavily dependant on a good rainy season and the second is a piece he did for Mandela Day in Blikkiesdorp, a township about 30min outside of Cape Town.

He has an online store where you can buy prints of photographs of some of his work. Go check it out. It’s beautiful.

In the next studio on you’ll find Vogel - a design studio with some incredibly unique furniture & decor pieces.  I fell in love with a flower shaped table, these African prints on canvas and these funky wooden chairs:

Hop on over to the other end and you’ll step into Dear Rae – a fine silver jewellery studio with what I’d call “pretty girly things”:

Next door is O.Live.  I’ve actually featured them on my blog before because they also have a store in Kloof St.  I love this store because it’s just such a treasure chest of all things weird & wonderful:

Across the way is Bronze Age and as the name would suggest, they do bronze statues in all shapes & sizes:

If you head upstairs you’ll find Opus (next to Lauren’s Lost is a place too) – they do these really cool hanging plants:

Carry on and you can pop into Casamento for some really interesting furniture which includes pieces done with hand embroidered fabrics:

And last but certainly not least, Smart Art – these guys will print anything on anything.  For realz. They also supply these great 3D wall coverings:

Back downstairs, the West Street Cafe was pushing out some seriously enticing aromas, but sadly I didn’t have time to stop for a bite.  Will have to go back to do a menu sampling I think…

I’ll be back…

So there you go guys.  An inside look at The Foundry Woodstock.  If you wanna go check it out for yourselves, you’ll find them at 160 Albert Rd.  The normal operating hours are Mon – Sat from 10am to 4pm, but I see The Lobby (the hair salon) has extended hours, so likely some of the other stores do a variation on those hours as well.

xxx