Monkeybiz

Founded in 2000 by ceramicists Barbara Jackson and Shirley Fintz — with artist Mathapelo Ngaka-Mtati and her mother making the first beaded doll — Monkeybiz grew into a nonprofit platform for contemporary South African bead art.

More than 450 women beaders work from home with supplied materials, producing one-of-a-kind signed sculptures whose sales are reinvested in artist support and community programmes. The whimsical beaded animals now sit in museum collections around the world.