“I didn’t grow up with jewellery or have any sort of affinity for it. I studied jewellery design because my boyfriend at the time was studying jewellery design.”
It was an unusual start for a designer who went on to win some of the most coveted jewellery design awards in the country and who is today, arguably, one of South Africa’s foremost fine jewellery designers.
Friends, business partners and occasional housemates, Carla Erasmus and Christa Botha met each other through mutual friends at a braai one Friday night in 2014. Less than a week later they had established Bofred – the name a quirky combination of Christa’s surname and Carla’s second name, Frederika – a boutique art, furniture and design business based in Cape Town.
Meet Karike Norval. Foodie, business owner and koeksister lady with a secret affinity for the graphs in her business spreadsheets!