Old tech, excellent rugs: Shuttleworth products are in high demand, shipped around world

Imagine using four-and-a-half-thousand-year-old technology to produce some of the most sought-after rugs in the world.

Ancient Egypt, the Babylonians, Rome and every civilisation since have used looms to weave carpets, rugs and fabrics.

Now, zoom to the hills of the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, to a giant shed, where the Shuttleworth family has been creating woven masterpieces for almost half a century with ancient technology. Shuttleworth Weaving’s products are shipped all over the world and are in continuous high demand among the world’s top designers and interior decorators.

The factory, and where the family still lives, is at the end of a steeply inclined, rocky driveway on top of a hill with a spectacular view that stretches to every extent of the horizon.

This is where Andy and Helen Shuttleworth settled in the Midlands after leaving the Eastern Cape 46 years ago, and where Andy’s dream of becoming a dairy farmer were eventually traded in for the love of weaving. And the business blossomed.

‘Everything is still made by hand’

“When it all started, my mom wanted to learn how to weave, giving her something to do while dad was out farming, so he made her a spinning wheel and a loom, and she started the entire journey,” said son Rob Shuttleworth, second generation in the family business.

The first items hot off the loom were cushion covers. Local interest in Helen’s weaving eventually led to growing demand for her ware and the cattle barn soon made way for the home industry. The carpet business swapped over from hobby to profession.

Rob said: “When the weaving started paying for the cattle feed, they sold the cattle and continued weaving.”

Since then, the family has produced thousands of rugs of varied sizes, colours and designs. And everything is still made by hand.

Wool, angora hair, cotton, synthetics and plantbased fibres all arrive at the farm in giant bags, whereafter a small team spins the fibre into yarn. Thereafter, it gets dyed if needs be loaded onto one of several different-sized looms for weaving into exceptional looking rugs.

Rob and his wife Julia assumed the reigns of the family business in 2005 when his founding parents retired. The massive ninemetre-wide looms used were all built by the family; some other, smaller looms collected through the years are more than 100 years old.

The shed where weaving brings their craft to life, was home constructed using recycled materials and shipping crates.

“Hand-made just gives an item a perspective, a uniqueness and a quality of craftsmanship that a machine produced item can never reproduce,” said Rob.

‘We do not use electricity at all’

The first record of a loom was found in Egypt and dates back to 4 000 BC. It was a drawing of a device that has remained the same since. It is manual, painstaking and repetitive work.

“We do not use electricity at all, it is all manual. In fact, we are completely off the grid at home, too,” added Rob.

The Shuttleworths have a small solar power plant of their own that generates enough electricity to power everything that they need. “We do have an emergency generator though, for misty Midland’s days,” he said.

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The family lives close to nature and tries to leave as little of a footprint on the planet as possible.

“We live up here on the mountain, on the edge of a forest. We’re about 1 600m above sea level with lovely clean mountain air.

“We get our water from the springs in the mountain and it’s probably the nicest water in South Africa.”

In fact, when the family goes on holiday, they pack litres of the water to take with. Rob is of the view that any other H20 tastes pale in comparison.

Shuttleworth Weaving has 17 employees and Rob and Julia still weave on the production line.

The family taught all the staff the craft of weaving and some have been with the company for 25 years, while retired workers have passed the baton to their children, and a second generation of weavers are beginning to take shape.

Everyone starts their career from the same genesis, and that included all the Shuttleworth offspring. Rob said everyone starts off by sweeping the floor, learning the trade, through to spinning and weaving.

Everyone on the production line is able to work on every aspect of the process as a consequence. Rob hopes to pass the baton to his children one day. In the meantime, interest keeps growing.

– news@citizen.co.za