Introducing the Ballo Workshop Residency

There's a pile of off-cuts in our Cape Town workshop that most people overlook. Curved remnants from the pantograph cutters. Fragments of wood, cork and fabric. Pieces too small for frames but too beautiful to ignore.

And it's why we're launching something new: the Ballo Workshop Residency.

The idea is simple. We invite local artists, designers and makers into our workshop to collaborate with the materials, processes and forms that shape Ballo frames. No brief. No boundaries. Just creative freedom and a collection of beautiful found materials with stories to tell.

Our First Maker in Residence

When we first imagined this program, there was really only one person who could be first: Cameron Barnes.

Cameron builds custom furniture from local alien timbers using Cradle to Cradle principles. No nails. No glue. Every piece is designed to be disassembled, so materials can live again in a new form. It's a regenerative approach that sees everything as either a biological nutrient (biodegradable) or a technical nutrient (infinitely recyclable). In Cameron's world, materials don't end — they transform.

These principles have been part of Ballo's DNA since we first made sunglasses from off-cut timber veneers. They run through every decision we make, from our bio-acetate frames to our recycled paper packaging.

A Week of Play

What emerged from that week of play? A series of kinetic mobiles that dance with the slightest breath of air. Each one composed entirely of Ballo frame off- cuts — delicate balancing acts of colour and form that give our production remnants a second life as moving sculptures

In his words:

"The Ballo workshop residency, an invitation to interact with the processes and materials that shape Ballo frames, provided the perfect space to explore making kinetic mobiles.

With a day job running a full time furniture workshop, focused on making functional objects, the Ballo residency and these resulting mobiles are a joyful spark of the frivolous and fun, a reminder that beauty doesn't always have to be useful."

The Residency is Here to Stay

Cameron's mobiles will be on display at our Cape Town store, but this is just the beginning. We are already thinking about who might walk through our doors next.

If you're an artist, designer or maker interested in collaborating with sustainable materials and circular design principles, we'd love to hear from you.

In the meantime, come see what happens when two workshops — and two brothers (yip, Al (our founder) and Cam are brothers) — decide to give beautiful materials another life.