Sunday Vision

By Jackie Nalubwama

Joel Balimanya is an avant-garde artist who makes a comfortable living out of old car tyres.

Balimanya looks happy and accomplished with his beautiful works surrounding him in his shop on Zainab Aziz Emporium’s top floor on Entebbe Road in Kampala.

His products include gladiator sandals, bangles, and framed art pieces, all made from worn old car tyres.

With recycled tyres as his base, Balimanya stitches African kitenge fabric on his pieces, which adds colour to the black of the tyre. It is the contrast of orange, pink, red, blue and pink kitenge that makes a beautiful finished product of a sandal or bangle.

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Zuula bangles with metal

Garbage to Gold

Prior to Zzuula Art – that is the name of his company which is Luganda for discover – Balimanya used to get material from Owino (St Balikuddembe) market to make framed art pieces. He has a knack for discovering gold in the old.

“When I was a student, I used to pick pieces from Owino when I was broke, and even after campus,” says Balimanya, who has a diploma in ceramics from Kyambogo University.

He would then collect the pieces of fabric and glue them onto barkcloth which was the canvas, and paste them as limbs and faces of his subjects. And the result was something exceptional, as colourful pictures of dancing African women would come to life from the Kitenge collage.

“They go for sh200, 000 per piece,” says Balimanya of his framed art pieces, which he sadly says he does not make as often as he would wish because of a lack of enough time.

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Zuula’s product pendant necklace made from a plug

Stumbling on an opportunity

Balimanya started working with old car tyres when he was teaching art African Children’s Choir in Entebbe in 2012.

“One day, I was walking out of the school gate and I saw a piece of rubber. I told my friend I could make something with it. My friend said, ‘Tumany’ oyiya naye leero biganye’,” narrates Balimanya.

His friend’s comment, which translates to “We know you are creative, but today, you will not succeed”, served to fuel Balimanya’s creative genius.

A fortnight after the incident, Balimanya had made his first bangle out of the same piece of rubber. He showed it to his friend, who liked it, as did many others and someone bought it.

“Eventually even that pessimistic friend started buying and selling [my bangles] to his other friends,” says Balimanya.

Balimanya did not look back. He ventured into bangles that incorporate metals and fabric, as well as shoes and bags. He is also trying to make earrings using the same materials: recycled car tyres, metal and African fabric.

Notwithstanding the challenges involved, Balimanya says business is good. He says at first Ugandans were not appreciative and he would have to rely on white clients, but now more Ugandans are buying his stuff.

His other challenge is that he has a lot more things to make than time allows. “I have a lot of ideas but little time to carry them out,” he says.

In addition, Balimanya finds it hard to get proper equipment in Uganda. Giving the example of the Prym, a tool that he uses to fix the metallic decorations on the rubber, Balimanya says Pryms on the market are inferior and from China.

He has since resorted to buying his tools in Germany, where a the tool sets him back 20 to 30 Euros (sh74, 700 to sh112,050). A leather punch falls in the same price range. The leather punch is used to make holes in the rubber, which he later presses metallic snippets into with a Prym.

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Zuula’s tyre sandals with Kitengi fabric

Inspiration

Balimanya is one of those few people who frankly admit that his inspiration is money.

“We all want money at the end of the day,” he says with a smile. Pressed on, Balimanya says the idea to create something different also inspires him, as well as trying to put to use what society has ignored (such as the old car tyres). For that very reason, he gave up on ceramics, his original field of study, because the market is already flooded with affordable Chinese ceramics. He chose to make unique art from recycled material instead.

Going places

Balimanya was aptly named, for his name means ‘They will know me’, and through his art, many have come to know him.

“Every October, I go to Germany and set up workshops of my art. I also visit four schools to teach children art, and at the end, they display their pieces,” he says.

Every year since 2012, Warendorf town, which is 440km from Berlin, awaits Balimanya’s return for lessons in art.

Plans

“I want to have a gallery with my works, not one with other people’s pieces,” says Balimanya.

He also plans to buy an engraving machine made by Gravograph, a French manufacturing company, which he says costs about sh8m. For now, he takes his metallic works to someone who owns an engraving machine and he is charged sh5,000 per piece to engrave names and other designs on the bangles.

Products range

Balimanya’s products are not only artistic with a personal touch but also affordable.

1. Gladiator sandals made from car tyre soles and African fabric costs sh30, 000

2. Bangles that cost sh10, 000 are a simple blend of metal and rubber, with an option of having your name or anything you fancy engraved on it. The sh20,000 bangles have bits of metal, African fabric and rubber.

3. Bags of different designs that incorporate Kitengi fabric