Thomas Longosi,a thirty three year old man,who makes bird portraits using feathers,a special paper,cotton and saw dust,he not only makes bird portraits but also makes the sounds of those birds.
Thomas,who resides at Donholm in Umoja,says he entirely depends on the business to earn a living.He started the business when he was seventeen years old,where he made some funny portrait and his dad laughed and said it was amazing.From then,he had so much desire to keep on making the portraits.
To many, bird’s feathers have no meaning after they are slaughtered, but to Thomas it’s one of the most important raw material which he uses.His customers are mostly women since women love decorations in their houses.He also sells the portraits in restaurants where he attracts his customers by making sounds of the birds.He makes eagles,peacock and many other different kinds of birds.
He gets the feathers from butchers where they are sold to him in kilos in a sack.He also needs wood so as to make the frames of his pictures.He puts saw dust to act as the background of his portraits plus also uses paint to make the portraits attractive.
This artistry is called collache and it’s need keen ness and patience as the big portraits take at most three hours and the small ones take two hours.He makes the portraits at his open store.
He says that before the internet he used to know different kinds of birds by visiting the museums and once he saw the pictures then they would be stuck in his mind.
He also faces challenges in his business,since many people didn’t believe in him when he started plus the market is not that profitable but since it is his passion he keeps on striving and struggling.
He hopes to get tenders from the government and that the government can support him in his business.
Ms.Fadhil 