Warning! Serious photo over load below!

Our house was built by a German family about 60 years ago. They came over to South Africa and started Hoffman hand weaving company. All these years later the company is still up and running and is situated next door to our house. It is still run by the daughter and her husband. The family lived in our house and worked next door in the factory. Even today the factory is still using the original wooden looms. All the products are hand woven by the Zulu staff. The knowledge that each staff member gets is handed down through their family so they have granddaughters working along side their grandmothers. There are about 15 staff members and Davi and Marianne. I LOVE Hoffman Hand weavers! I often pop next door to watch the weavers at work.
As an organization we are looking to start a school for our orphans. That way each child will get a good education and a chance to go to University. We told Davi and Marrianne of what we want to do and they got very excited. They have been looking to sell the property and the business for a while now but Marrianne really wants it to be sold to someone who will continue to run the hand weavers and keep it traditional and functioning as it is now. As someone who grew up in our house she really wants the 2 properties to stay together and when they heard that we were looking for somewhere to start a school they realised that their property and the surrounding land would be perfect.
The weavers would move into the lower floor of the building and the school would be on the top floor. There would be enough room for us to school a couple hundred children. There is some land that would make perfect playing fields. As we are so in love with the hand weavers business we would keep the business going and use the profits to fund the school!!! Hoffman hand weavers has even made rugs for the Sultan of Brunei!! They have many interior designers from all over the country and also Europe who order rugs for projects that they are working on. The business brings in more that enough profit to keep a school running!

So in telling you all this please pray for this venture...if it right with God, that the money comes in if it is what we are supposed to do, that we find managerial staff to help us run it.
Below are some photos of Hoffman hand weavers so that you can get an idea of what it is all about.

Stevie dying some wool.

This machine combs the wool to make it soft and easy to spin.

Bobbins and balls of spun yarn ready for weaving.

The wool is often spun by hand on the old spinning wheels.

These are balls of cotton, it is in fact strips of cotton bandages that have been dyed, it is used to weave cotton rugs. I love all the colours that are used.

Here is one of the looms. You can see how old they are. The women sit and do it all by hand...man they are strong women!

Here above is one of the newest rugs. Isn't it stunning?! Below is the showroom.

Finished product.