Pretoria - Not everyone can make beautiful hand-crafted wooden car toys, and even if you have the skill and talent, it can take years to perfect it.
This is according to Malawian Happy Mvula, 35, who describe the craft as not just toys, but art. And he knows what he is talking about because he has been hand-crafting model cars since he was young.
However, for the past four years, he has been selling his creations to customers around Pretoria.
Using mahogany wood and glue, Mvula makes hand-crafted wooden vehicles from excavators, graders, land cruisers, vans, buses, planes to helicopters.
Mvula learnt the skill of wood crafting from his parents and it seems it runs in his family, because his brother also does the same thing.
“I started doing this at a very young age as I had parents who were doing the same thing I am doing now, hand work and wood crafting.”
Mvula said he was not only limited to crafting vehicles, and could design any type of cars.
“I used to allow people to bring their own designs. I was once asked to design a hand-crafted human statue. It becomes a problem to do other designs as I learnt to design and build cars.”
Mvula said he made seven to five cars a week, but since it was a mixture of glue and wood, the final products may not be 100% done in time.
He works with his brother to design and build the hand-crafted toys and then sells them in Waterkloof.
Mvula says prices for the cars differ depending on their size.
“It is works of art, so it all depends on how big it is and how long it took me to build it,” he says. “Remember, I still have to buy glue and wood -so that also determines my prices.”
Mvula says not all his customers demand him to lower his prices, but instead they pay extra money for his work.
He said it was hand work, and for a wood car to look like a real car, it is not easy and could a lot of time.
Mvula said the love that he was receiving from people and his customers made him happy and appreciated the support.
His work is widely shared on social media and has attracted customers from all corners of the country.
“People would share my work on social media, and that helps me get more customers.
“This helps me to get orders from as far as Cape Town and that really makes me happy,” he said.
Mvula said his customers were happy with his work and often recommended him to other people.
“To my customers, I appreciate the support they have shown me and my work - without them I am nothing.
“I am still here because of them and I will even work harder to make my craft even more beautiful,” he said.
Pretoria News