Today, in 1955, the Guinness owner settled an argument about Europe's fastest game bird by having a book made. Free to pubs and waterproof covers for the inevitable spills. Now, Melville settles its arguments the same way, loud, proud and most times over a cold one. Welcome to Melville Untold, the publication tailor-made for you and yours. Let’s go.

In this week’s newsletter,

— Aubrey Moloto, Caroline Koma

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Somebody walked into Tinsel Gallery once and asked for a Parktown prawn. Eric Loubser made it, in bronze, as a brooch. "Every job gives you a unique set of challenges, but also creative potential," he says.

That is more or less the whole business, and it’s held for twenty years! Tinsel turned twenty in May 2026.

Geraldine Fenn opened Tinsel in 2006, downstairs at the Bamboo Lifestyle Centre in the space where Pienk Hair Salon is, because nothing like it was around. "There wasn't really a place for local handmade, more contemporary jewellery, something a bit different from the standard commercial stuff you get."

The first shelves took about fifty makers: students, hobbyists, working professionals, all in one room.

Twenty years of really coming into its own, and it’s a gallery, not a shop: mostly their own work plus about fifteen other local designers, nothing mass-produced, most pieces one-offs, none of it outsourced to somebody else's hands. It’s all 100% designer-made.

How The Partnership Began

Gerry was lecturing art history at Stellenbosch while Eric was finishing his studies there. He wasn’t her student. (I know what you’re thinking!) He just spent a lot of time in the jewellery department, having grown up as a child prodigy, inspired by his enterprising, artisan mom. 

Eric’s mother is a jeweller; his legs dangled off the workbench at home, way before he thought of it as a career. "You don't grow up at a corporate table," he says. "In the crafts and the arts, you grow up in it. Your hands are dirty." He later trained classically, then walked away from the commercial side at the moment the country made the decision a no-brainer: the economic landscape broke down the then-thriving commercial jewellery industry. "If it's all going to fall apart, you can just as well do what you love."

Parkhurst Is Not Always The Answer

Tinsel left Bamboo for Parkhurst for three years, and it was there they built the first studio inside the shop and started working as a partnership, around 2011. Then Parkhurst changed right under them. The antique shops became restaurants and clubs, and the weekend crowd arrived in cars worth more than the stock. "Those people are not interested in what we do," Geraldine says. Eric puts it harder: "They all want the same cars."

Five years at his mother's studio near Linden followed, “the babies era”, where they could have support from family while raising the kids and growing the business. Then, just before lockdown in 2020, they signed a lease back at Bamboo. The landlord couldn’t believe his luck! But it worked for them because they lived up the road.

The Forgotten Word

Most jewellers these days design on a computer, 3D print a model and cast it. Tinsel still cuts and files metal at a bench by hand, which sorta sounds obsolete until you understand what you're actually buying. "First of all, we can make exactly what you want," Eric says. You come in, chat, a design comes out of the conversation, and then somebody makes it. It’s not from a collection.

The word for that is sorely misused these days, and it makes me think of how the market landscape has changed as well. Things are cookie-cutter these days, fewer artisans at markets and more Chinese “drop-shipped” goods resold. And advertising calls a choice of finishes bespoke. It isn't. "It's a bit like putting a cover on a cellphone," Eric says. "You make yours. But it's the same cellphone." Geraldine: "It's the wrong use of the word. They use it to hook you in, but that's not what it is." Say it louder for all the people in the back, Gerry!

Hand work also lets them do what the “CAD shops” can't. With the gold price where it is, a lot of their work is remodelling: your grandmother's ring, melted and rebuilt into something that adds your story to the legacy.

The Only One In The Motherland

Tinsel's own description, on the international art jewellery platform klimt02, is that it is the only contemporary jewellery gallery on the African continent, showing Southern African artists since 2006. 

They have shown at Munich, the field's biggest gathering, every year since 2022, and their work sits in galleries in Brazil, Switzerland, Stockholm and Montreal. Geraldine won the 2025 Solo Exhibition Award from the American Art Jewellery Forum, which paid for a catalogue and a solo show, Dispatch from the Colonies, in Montreal this June. "For a long time the art jewellery scene was very European, a bit of an old boys’ club," she says. "Now it's broadened. So a gallery showing African work, that's actually nice for them to see too."

The field is tiny. "When you all come together it's like a hundred people in a room and everybody knows each other. And that's the whole world." Which is how two Danish jewellers, Helen Clara Hemsley and Mette Saabye, come to be showing in Melville in February.

It’s Getting Real

For years the feeling was that there was no audience for local art jewellery, which is why they went overseas. On the morning of this interview, they sold an art piece to a local buyer. "It was unthinkable a few years ago to ever sell here," says Eric.

We asked where they want to be in another twenty years, and neither says bigger. "I'm hoping in twenty years you can talk about the amazing collectors in South Africa," Eric says. Geraldine's version is smaller and sharper: "Instead of buying ten cheap, nasty pairs of earrings that'll break in a couple of months, invest in one piece handmade by a local jeweller. And because we're here, you can bring it back to us to be polished, to be fixed. We do that all the time."

Twenty Years Of Other People's Milestones

That’s what bespoke actually means. Not the bench, not the hand-cutting, but the relationship built over time.

"We've got clients we've literally had for twenty years," Geraldine says. "First it's an engagement ring. Then a wedding ring. Then, oh, we're having a baby, let's have a gift for that. Then it's a fortieth. That, for me, is what I'm most proud of."

Halfway through the interview, a customer arrived to collect a piece for his wife, anxious about whether she would like it. They had already made rings for his brother. There is another family in the books, three sons, all their engagement rings and now the wedding bands. Do you know the maker of the things you own?

I Love Melville

They came back to Mellies on purpose, and stayed for reasons that will sound familiar.

"It's a lekker vibe," Geraldine says. "A nice community spirit. Less uptight than a lot of the parks." Eric on the neighbours: "There's someone from everywhere that lives here. They're not visiting. They live here." Internationals who could be in a security estate walk in and tell him they chose Melville, which still makes him chuckle.

The business case: the location is everything. They need clients with disposable income, and Westcliff and the northern suburbs are close enough. But the reason they fit here and not there is that Melville still has community. Eric has watched the alternative overseas: "You walk into the square that always had these artisans, and it's Prada, LV. All the squares look the same now. That's what Melville still gives you."

Every business in the Bamboo Lifestyle Centre and Melpark Heights is run by the person who owns it. That’s incredibly rare to say in 2026, and it’s the same chat as the ring: you can still meet the people who made it.

Tinsel is upstairs, Shop 8, Bamboo Lifestyle Centre, 53 Rustenburg Road. Weekdays 9ish to 5ish, Saturdays 10ish to 2ish, which tells you most of what you need to know about them. They’re Melville People. Go up the stairs. Squeeze the clown bike horn, and start opening drawers. It’s so fulfilling, promise.

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Super-stacked week ahead: programme for Melville Art Mile loading, plus live music is back. Big win for the groovists!

For more updates as the week goes on, visit the Melville Pulse event calendar

Don’t see your event? Submit it here. Need content coverage? Request a quote. Here’s our work.

And just like that, before you can even blink, the next mile is upon us! This month we're pushing the hood out of winter and into the season of growth, bloom and beauty; heritage style. And yes, we're not missing a chance to celebrate braais and my favourite, dressing up in traditional outfits. The spirit of Mzansi really comes alive in September!

For first Thursday we're putting on a heritage special and saying peace out to Cosy First Thursdays. We're still finalising the programme, but all you need to know is that it’s a colossal finish to the year. Artists and businesses are still applying daily!

We've also signed our first official brand partnership, with Old Buck Dry Gin, which tells you how fast this event has grown. They're one of several sponsors we're talking to, and the brief is to add to the experience rather than splash branding around.

Old Buck picked out venues and activations from our past programmes that speak to their brand and their focus on urban culture, where African heritage meets art and the street. Just in time for Heritage Month! Spots like The Resource Gallery and Indoni Arts are a close fit, so they'll be lifting certain stops and experiences along the route. It goes past product too: they want to grow into the event with us and back what the organisation is trying to do.

In just eight months, we've become enormous. Tjo!

September Artist Of The Month 🐝

That bee on next week's poster is a David Kuijers. Born in Vanderbijlpark in 1962 to Dutch immigrant parents, he took the best painter award at Pretoria's School of Art, Music and Ballet at eighteen, did his time as a sign writer, then graduated top of his class in illustration at Cape Technikon.

David has been a full-time painter since 1999. He works in acrylic, on canvas and on glass, and in steel, and he gives his animals titles like Not My Monkey and Crocodile Tears. He paints out of his own studio in Greyton these days.

Represented by Alice Art Gallery. Catch the poster in the flesh at the Melville Art Mile, Thursday 3 September, 16:00 to 21:00.

Come celebrate our hood's art heritage with us once again. It's a fun, safe and comfy way to see Melville once a month. Claim one of the limited spots on the tour. It backs Snaps, and gets you the best of the mile: complimentary drinks, priority access and shuttles. 

This month we're stepping it up with a light meal to keep your stomach lined and your energy up across the stretch. Get your tickets now.

You might have noticed that the water keeps pulling a Houdini.

The fire at the Crosby substation was a bigger problem than it sounds, because it took Eikenhof down with it, and Eikenhof supplies the Commando system, Randburg, Roodepoort and parts of Soweto. That's huge.

As our incoming councillor Jonathan Thompson put it: "Due to a fire at a main substation in town, the electrical system has protection systems where it will trip all of the substations linked to it, which affected Eikenhof pumping station."

You can just imagine the reaction from residents.

"The reaction was not very well received as the Commando system is continuously facing ongoing water supply issues and it affects residents' daily lives," he said.

Where We Stand Now

Good news for a change: on Tuesday morning things were looking a lot better. This morning we're dry again.

JT told us they closed off the supply, likely to boost the Brixton reservoirs, and when they opened things back up, the water came back quicker than he has ever seen.

"This morning [Tuesday] when they opened, the water supply came back much quicker, well, one of the quickest times I've ever seen. Normally it's very slow and gradual. So, this morning the water supply is doing well in Melville."

He hadn't had a single complaint by midday, which is a win for him in this city. I'm sure things look different this morning.

Where To Get Proper Updates

If you want to actually know what's going on without relying on third-hand information, JT says the best place is the Melville Council Issues group.

"We do share updates, so Councillor Kyle will share updates of what he gets from Johannesburg Water management. I do also get updates from Johannesburg Water. I also do what I call ground reporting," he said.

Over the last six years, he has learned how the system reacts, so he can tell whether there's enough supply coming in from Rand Water and how the other systems are behaving. If you're not in the group yet, he can add you. Just reach out.

What This Tells Us About Our Infrastructure

It's a symptom of a much bigger problem.

"It's clearly, this shows that there need to be serious changes made to our infrastructure," Thompson said.

The first fix is simple enough on paper: Eikenhof pump station needs a second power supply. Right now there's only one set of power lines going into it, which means one fire or one trip takes the whole thing down.

"There is an additional substation just south of it, so City Power at some point, one day hopefully in the future, would have to put additional power lines up so that if there's an interruption, it can be switched over."

The Commando System: Old, Tired and Underfunded

"The Commando system for the last 2 to 3 years has been receiving upgrades, much-needed upgrades, because the Commando system is between 60 to 90 years old and it had never received any form of upgrades."

The upgrades are happening, but there's a problem: contractors aren't getting paid.

"The contracting companies are doing the work; they are paying their staff, but they're not getting fully paid, or what's now happening again, the same as last year, the City of Joburg is just not paying them at all for months on end," JT said.

That's causing massive delays, and it goes past the contractors. Suppliers are getting stiffed too.

"The biggest setback to make sure that the project is completed promptly, as quickly as possible, is for the City of Joburg executives, the current coalition government, they need to make sure that the teams are paid on time, the contractors are paid, the suppliers are paid."

This is the ring-fencing of funds that WaterCAN and the councillors have been fighting for.

In the meantime, keep reporting outages, hold your service providers to account, and maybe stash a few extra bottles of water in case we become Cape Town 2.0.

The once-a-month Market at Kruisgemeente Kerk will not be open this weekend. There’s a big fun day happening at UJ.

Residents and regular visitors should take note of a big disruption this Saturday, 29 August. The NativeChild Power Up Games bring a day of movement and community to Melville's doorstep, at UJ Stadium in Westdene. It kicks off with a 5K and 8K fun run at 07:00, followed by track events, obstacle courses, bubble soccer and live performances from 09:00.

The entry fee does more than cover the day. NativeChild, a South African natural hair and body care brand, puts part of the proceeds into school uniforms, tablets, books and empowerment programmes for learners in township schools.

Tickets start at R80 and are sold online only. There are no sales at the gate, so if you like leaving things to the last minute, then in the words of modern satirical philosopher Trevor Noah: "You will find nothing, heh!"

The Melville Residents Association AGM is back. Wednesday 2 September at 18:00, at Kruisgemeente church, 45 4th Avenue.

Join the MRA, the Melville Business Association, Melville Security Initiative and Beagle Watch for updates on the year gone by, plans moving forward, and a chance to ask questions and raise concerns. All members are welcome.

If you want to be part of it, RSVP on the Melville Residents Association website.

With everything this community goes through, getting involved matters more now than ever. We hope to see you there. If you were at last year's, you know you don't want to miss this one!

Our seasonal Pet Swag Contest is in its final weeks. Get your entry in before it closes for the year, because these are easy prizes.

Send a snap of your furry family member in their snazziest outfit to [email protected], or enter in person at Raw Pet Food Deli, and donate a blankie while you're there. We're also collecting at Ziggy's Pet Pamporium in Melville.

The Johannesburg SPCA is reminding owners to check their pets' vaccination schedules going into spring. Staying current is still the best defence against the outbreaks that do the rounds here.

Richmond Vets says routine check-ups are up, and that tick and flea treatment is worth keeping on schedule rather than waiting for a problem to show up.

Two more worth doing this week: keep your gates locked, and check that your microchip details are current. A chip with an old number on it does not get anybody home. And with all the satellites SpaceX is launching, Bobby won’t be able to navigate home!

Beagle Watch is microchipping and vaccinating pets in Blairgowrie this Sunday, 30 August. Bookings are essential, so read the details and book your pet's spot here.

Woof!

When they reopened, we wrote that a familiar face was back in the node, and that going by the responses, the hood was itching to get bums on those slides.

Bambanani, the community's child haven and parents' saving grace, had closed, and the whole of Jozi nearly came apart at the seams. How lucky are we to have that magical Mellies spirit? 2,000 local parents, patrons and regulars signed a petition and rallied. Lo and behold, on 4 August they announced their reopening, with the doors going back up on Thursday 6 August.

Sjoe, you should have seen the engagement on that post: 417 likes and 43 comments, on an account that normally sits under 50.

"Thank you so much for the support during this time, we can't wait to welcome you back," the team posted.

If you're an avid reader, none of that is news. We just wanted to follow up on the response and let you know the new hours:

• Monday to Friday, 10h00 to 18h00

• Saturday and Sunday, 09h00 to 18h00

Yoh, Bambanani is back, and the Ville-egers couldn't be happier

JCW’s Play Café Launch Spring

Get ready to welcome the warmer weather with a purpose on Saturday, 5 September, as Joburg Child Welfare hosts a festive Spring Day family gathering at the Play Café in 27 Boxes, 4th Avenue. Running from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, expect a day of play, connection, and creativity for everyone in the family.

For the babies aged 2 to 6, there’ll be loads of engaging activities, like messy play, face painting, canvas and ceramic painting, and even a jumping castle! 

Parents can enjoy some well-deserved relaxation with Social Coffee & Canvas upstairs. Check their pages for more info.

Beyond the fun stuff, showing up directly backs a worthy cause. A portion of the proceeds goes to the Princess Alice Care Centre, a vital programme of Joburg Child Welfare that provides essential support to children and families in need.

Spring Markets Return to Joburg Artist Market

Joburg Child Welfare’s weekend markets at 27 Boxes are getting a spring blossom boost this September, starting with their usual First Thursday Night Market on 3 September on the Melville Art Mile.

“We’re calling all vendors who would like to get involved. Anyone is welcome. Artists, artisans, creatives, entertainers, food stalls, youth entrepreneurs, to help create a fun experience for families,” says Joanne of JCW. 

“Our Spring Special is R80 per stall or R100 for a double stand. Enquiries go to Simphiwe Mogale on 071 857 4413 or [email protected]. We would like to thank MAM [Melville Art Mile] for its support.”

Thank you for rocking with us for issue 92. If you read something useful, intriguing, or something that made you proud to be in the Ville, consider buying us a coffee. Give the crew a tip.

There's another, more fun, way to back us: come out on the Melville Art Mile next week and book the tour. Come and enjoy Melville with an insider, all social circles unlocked. Let’s break bread.

Think this was too good to share? Don’t be stingy; forward this mail to someone who loves Melville.

'Til next week,

Stay humble, stay hopeful, stay handmade.

Ingat ✌️✌️