18 Aug 2020

Mention the name Tlhalefo Lehoti in Moiyabana and everybody knows whom you are talking about.

The 62 year-old is what you can call the village wood carver, something he started early on in life and learnt from his late father who was equally respected as a wood carver.

Mr Lehoti said as a young boy, he carved just to kill time, without any inclination to use the skill to his advantage.

“When I was still a boy, I would sit next to my father whenever he was carving, to learn the ropes”, he said, adding that he only got serious about wood carving when he became independent.

Mr Lehoti said a certain white Roman Catholic woman in Serowe, who had formed a group of wood carvers invited him to join in.

The woman marketed their work outside the country, and would get orders for them after which they got paid.

This worked for them because they had a market for their products.

Mr Lehoti stayed with the group for several years and quit to work for various construction companies but his love for carving remained.

He said he retraced his steps in 2011 to carry on where he had left off in wood carving.

Mr Lehoti admits that he owns none of the fancy machinery and relies on the saw to cut off chunks of wood, an adze to make shapes and a knife to pare, cut, and smooth the wood as well as a hot metal to decorate his products.

Working with wood he said was no walk in the park and required precision unlike clay where one could mix until they got the texture right.

“With wood, once you cut a piece out, that’s it,” he said and further noted that carving required planning and concentration.

The rewards are equally astounding and Mr Lehoti loves how a piece of wood can be transformed into a complex art piece.

Motlopi, morula and modumela make the list of trees he uses to carve kitchen utensils such as cups, spoons, bowls, chairs and sometimes moulded human and animal figures as per clients’ order.

He said he wished for government to help wood carvers with tools and machines that could make their job easier noting that he was willing to try out modern technologies to advance his work.

Mr Lehoti dreams of owning a business that could attract like-minded artists, to enable them to bounce ideas off each other and bargain with one voice. ENDS