OUR STORY

The Deckle Edge started in the bustling suburb of Rondebosch. It had some paper and a bit of paint but it was actually a craft shop, gift shop, collectors shop as well as a coffee shop. It sold everything from rubber stamps and teddy bears to milk tart and rooibos tea with a few oils and acrylics on the shelves in the corner.

While this shop was ticking along a wonderful lady by the name of Dot was living with her husband Bruce and two children in the Transkei. Dot was happily pottering around Zithulele Hospital helping with literacy whilst Bruce, a civil engineer, climbed windmills, built dams and created water pumps. Towards the end of 1992 Bruce and Dot decided that perhaps the Transkei was not the safest place to be in South Africa at that time of our country's history. With a clapped out (and very rusty) bakkie and a two tone VW combi Bruce and Dot and two kids arrived in Cape Town.

Now Bruce kept on with his work as a general do-gooder for rural parts, just from behind a computer in Hout Bay now, and Dot decided she would look for something new. In the year of 1994 she found the quaint art/gift/coffee shop in Riverside Centre, Rondebosch and decided this looked like a fun option.

For five years Dot slowly altered the shop - she took away the coffee shop, started ordering more artist supplies and less teddy bears and rubber stamps and she even moved into a bigger shop just across the mall. In the year of 1999, Bruce decided that he had had enough of his building things then writing reports on them afterwards and he noticed that his wife was having way too much fun and success with her little venture. This was when they decided to join mighty forces (and of course they just wanted to spend their day together) and opened The Deckle Edge branch in Upper Roodebloem Road in Woodstock.

The road opened up for The Deckle Edge - A few months after Woodstock came Constantia, after Constantia came Knysna, after Knysna came Stellenbosch and after Stellenbosch came Tyger Valley. Sadly after all this, the original Riverside Centre branch closed but the memory of milk tarts on Saturday mornings, rubber stamping christmas cards and collecting teddy bears still lives on in the minds of Bruce, Dot and their kids.

The Deckle Edge has come along way but it has been the obvious way to come. Right from the start Dot noticed the gap in which artists, designers and all creatives in Cape Town craved a place in which to find all their treasures. This is what she and Bruce have tried to do - provide a place for creatives to not only get what they need but to get excited about what they can potentially create!