Studio T Manufacturers
Studio T's Tebogo Molefe incorporates indigenous materials with precious metals, creating a classical afro centric range of jewellery. His jewellery brand, Magadi, is a range of high end bridal jewellery incorporating platinum group metals with local diamonds. Magadi is a Setswana name meaning the price that the bridegroom has to pay to the bride's parents before the wedding proceedings. Magadi has significance in almost all of the African traditions, serving as a bridge to the wedding ceremony. It has also developed into a culture that whenever the groom prepares for magadi he also buys an engagement ring and presents for the bride's parents as a token of appreciation for allowing him to have their daughter.
Tebogo grew up in one of the Bafokeng villages near Rustenburg. The Bafokeng land is located on top of a very rich mineral outcrop called the Merensky Reef, Most of the world's platinum is mined here and in adjacent areas. Having grown in this kind of environment where most of the people work for the mines he also ended up digging the ore underground. This is where his love for platinum began. He started research on the uses of this ore and found that some percentage of the platinum mined is used for jewellery making. That was when he decided to pursue a career in jewellery design and manufacture.
Tebogo's passion is to transfer his knowledge and expertise to the underprivileged members from his community, who in turn will help him in reaching his goal to turn the platinum province and city into a hub for high end platinum jewellery and also for them to be economically self sustainable. His mission is to create a proudly South African range of jewellery that is of a very high quality, designed and made here by the local designers and manufacturers from the platinum province, especially around the Bafokeng.
Tebogo's PlatAfrica 2007 design was one of the top ten designs in the Professional Category. He manufactured the piece in platinum and it was exhibited at the 2008 Design Indaba at the Cape Town Convention Centre. He has also exhibited his work at the Woman's World Cup of Golf at Sun City.
Email: tebogo@spi.org.za
