MOMAT artists’ textiles are hand painted or block printed in our Muizenberg studio near the sea. The studio is based in a converted garage surrounded by a jungle-like indigenous thicket garden, a 5-minute walk from the bbellamy&bbellamy shop. We use only water soluble, low-toxicity inks on biodegradable base cloths that don't generate landfill or ocean plastic. The studio also serves as David Bellamy's space to make paintings… and to conceive interesting ‘thinking, making and communicating’ projects, including Slow Clothes, for the broader MOMAT platform.
David Bellamy’s artisanal textiles studio in Muizenberg
Hand painted artists' textiles designed by David Bellamy, air drying in the thicket garden at the studio.
Sketching ideas at David Bellamy’s artisanal textile studio.
Blue Sea Marble being hand painted at the David Bellamy artists' textile studio, Muizenberg, Cape Town.
An oil painting from David Bellamy's series featuring endangered palm trees.
WATCH VIDEO: Behind the scenes with MOMAT and bbellamy&bbellamy founder, artist David Bellamy.
MOMAT founder David Bellamy is an artist, scientist, textile designer and environmentalist. He launched the Museum of Making and Tomorrow (MOMAT) in November 2018 as a platform for ‘thinking, making and communicating’, with a group exhibition titled ‘Artist’s Textiles’ at the Irma Stern Museum, UCT.
David’s paintings, sculptural vessels, textile designs and slow clothes refer to the natural world, out of which we evolved and upon which we depend. His fabrics are produced using labour-intensive methods in the artisanal textile studio that adjoins his home.
‘I’m inspired by almost everything in the natural world... and by ferocity, kindness, generosity, ambition, valour.’
The bbellamy&bbellamy shop in Main Road, Muizenberg, houses an extensive curated collection of imported fabrics, hand picked by David over decades, and is a treasure trove for local decorators, fabric lovers and tourists. More recently, the shop became a showcase for David’s contemporary artists’ textiles.
‘We should be making everything last for as long as possible, every object should have 9 lives, so we should always live with old and new things.’
David’s academic credentials reflect his wide-ranging interests. He holds a BSc degree in Advanced Biology (Wits, Johannesburg), a BA Hons in Fine Art and Critical Studies (St Martin’s School of Art, London) and studied Zen Shiatsu and Traditional Chinese Medicine (London College of Shiatsu).
David Bellamy with his dog friend Tommy.
David's home is his creative sanctuary and laboratory.
David painting a study of his thicket garden in Muizenberg as Tommy watches on.
David launched his artists' textiles studio in 2014. Most of the fabrics are hand painted, stencilled or block printed in the studio adjoining his house.
In 2019 David began working with clay to create sculptural vessels which he imagines as paintings.
David is an avid art collector. Ruan Hoffmann ceramics are a favourite. MOMAT sells Hoffmann's collectible hand painted plates and have produced an artists' textile, Waterlilies, in collaboration with him.
The bbellamy&bbellamy fabric shop in Muizenberg, Cape Town.
Velvets in every hue welcome visitors to the bbellamy&bbellamy fabric shop.
A rail of hand tailored Liberty lawn shirts at the bbellamy&bbellamy shop.
David opened South Africa's first 'art hotel', the Cape Francolin Art Hotel, in Riebeek Kasteel.
In 2012, I began exploring the problem of human estrangement – from our next-door-neighbor Earthlings, and our collective futures – and the possibility of generating thinking around de-estrangement by means of personal adornment and clothing. My patchworked ‘ornithology’ scarves were included in the Cape Craft and Design Institute’s Handmade Collection and sold, together with other garments, from my shop.
This evolved into the more solution-focused MOMAT – the Museum Of Making And Tomorrow, which is an imaginary or conceptual museum that exists in the future, where humans have faced our current environmental problems and their accumulative consequences, and have ‘designed out’ the problems and ‘designed in’ the solutions.
The clothes are as if brought back from this viable future, acting as evidence – or literal actualisations – of the solutions. Both the questions and the answers are displayed and worn, showing, intrinsically, the capacity for human identification with the natural world.
My designs are intended to signpost or steer perception. For example, ‘thicket garden’ reminds us that regenerative design begins at home, while ‘the surface of the sea’ reminds us how important oceans – out of which we evolved and upon which we are dependent – are to Life on Earth.
‘What I’m most interested in is designing ‘thinking’ – working meanings into my clothes in order to develop personal identification with solutions. For me, this is the role of Design and Designers in all areas, but importantly in fashion, which as a sector has so many large and far-reaching impacts.’
Only biodegradable cloth is used, so the cloth doesn’t generate sea plastic, landfill or micro-fibres. Linen has a low water footprint and requires relatively little pesticide to produce a very strong, long-lasting fibre. Linen garments can be worn for decades and have the potential to become heirlooms, or be recycled into something else.
Some of my garments are made using old velvet curtains bought at auction and then hand printed in the studio, granting them a new life and purpose. In a society such as ours, in which many of us are without jobs, structuring hand labour into textiles and clothing production designs stability into our society.
PRICES ON REQUEST. Photographs by Martin Hahn
Siobahn wears a linen shirt, hand painted and stencilled in 'thicket garden-wydahs'. Inks are low-toxicity, water soluble fabric inks manufactured in Cape Town. These shirts are unique pieces, made to order, taking 4 days of work.
A MOMAT man’s linen shirt in ‘the breast plumage of an African sparrowhawk’ hand linoprinted over 2 days. Made to order. The shirt hangs on a LOVE (all Earthlings) Molecule by David Bellamy.
Alfonzo wears an upcycled long-sleeve t-shirt hand painted in 'lightning'.
Lily wears the MOMAT linen 'glacier dress'. The backdrop is a length of ‘surface of the sea’, hand painted on linen with a porcupine quill. This piece was exhibited at the Irma Stern Museum in 2018 as part of an ‘Artists Textiles’ exhibition.
Alfonzo wears a linen shirt in 'rain' over-stencilled on a painted design 'Table Mountain sandstone, artesian water — no fracking'. Siobahn wears a stencilled linen shift in ‘rain'. Both designs focus on identification with the maintenance of sweet water access for humans and all Earthlings. Rain becomes artesian water, which nourishes for example, trees, enters rivers, and finally the sea. All MOMAT designs use low-toxicity, water soluble inks.
MOMAT linen men’s shirts in ‘incidental pattern’. Made to order. The shirts hang on a LOVE (all Earthlings) Molecule by David Bellamy.
Georgia wears a linen shirt in 'surface of the sea', hand painted with a porcupine quill, over a linen shift in 'surface of the sea'.
Siobahn wears a cotton velvet jacket and wrap skirt hand-printed in 'the song of the Cape Robin Chat, in the Autumn after the first rain has fallen'. The jacket is made from upcycled velvet curtains bought at auction. Made to order.
Since launching an artists' textile studio in 2014, designer, artist and environmentalist David Bellamy has featured in leading decor magazines including ELLE DECORATION South Africa, Condé Nast House and Garden, House and Leisure and Sunday Times LifeStyle. David Bellamy’s designs have also been showcased in curated exhibits like '100 Beautiful Things' and '100% Textiles/Picture Africa' at 100% Design South Africa, and as part of the MrP Home 2016 CoLab Blanket project. In November 2018 he launched MOMAT, the Museum of Making and Tomorrow, with a group exhibition, ‘Artist’s Textiles’, which he curated at the UCT Irma Stern Museum.
SUNDAY TIMES LifeStyle, November 2018
HOUSE AND LEISURE, July 2017
HOUSE AND LEISURE ‘The Design Issue’, June 2017. Cathy O’Clery wears MOMAT linen shirt dress by David Bellamy.
ELLE DECORATION South Africa, Issue 107, April/May 2016
ELLE DECORATION South Africa, Issue 107, April/May 2016
ELLE DECORATION South Africa, Issue 107, April/May 2016
ELLE DECORATION South Africa, Issue 107, April/May 2016
Condé Nast House and Garden, South Africa, April 2016
WATCH VIDEO: David Bellamy's 'Fly Free Forever' blanket featured in the MrP Home 2016 CoLab project
House and Leisure, September 2014
ELLE DECORATION South Africa, Issue 101, April/May 2015
ELLE DECORATION South Africa, Issue 101, April/May 2015
Fabrics from the imported selection at the bbellamy&bbellamy shop, featured in House and Leisure's Trend Report, September 2014
Fabrics from the imported selection at the bbellamy&bbellamy shop, featured in House and Leisure's Trend Report, September 2014
Fabrics from the imported selection at the bbellamy&bbellamy shop, featured in House and Leisure's Trend Report, September 2014
House and Leisure, August 2014