A River Runs Through It

The De Heer-Rossouw family found their slice of heaven on a smallholding in the Natal Midlands, where Merewyn’s chandelier business adds sparkle to the local community.

- Marian van Wyk

Meewyn de Heer-Rossouw and her husband Juan-Pierre Rossouw bought their 30-acre smallholding close to the village of Nottingham Road in 2016. Even though the creative mother of two swapped city life and a career in the advertising industry for a more tranquil lifestyle in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, this doesn’t mean that she’s fully succumbed to life in the slow lane.

On the contrary: since the move, Merewyn has developed her Hellooow Handmade business, where she works side by side with a group of HIV-affected women who produce the chandeliers that add glamour to her farm-style interior, and also find their way into many beautiful South African homes as well as artisanal homeware stores across the world, including American retailer Restoration Hardware.

“This business is my whole life!” says Merewyn. “The clay beads that we use in our chandeliers are all hand-rolled and can be made by women who are sick and struggling. It’s a real empowerment project that creates ongoing work, and it absolutely breaks my heart that other local and international businesses are making cheap copies of my designs. At the beginning of our journey, I made a critical strategic decision to never use imported wood or plastic beads as that won’t create work for our people. It takes up to seven days for a woman to string one chandelier with approximately 11 000 beads!”

In fact, this passion for handmade chandeliers helped clinch the deal when Merewyn and Juan bought their piece of heaven, as Merewyn refers to their property with its beautiful river and mountain views, but it was in need of an update when they first viewed it with its bright green kitchen and dark linoleum floors.