Our story began more than 30 years ago, when a talented English teacher – Carrol Boyes – decided to pursue her passion for art and sculpture. Since the inception of the brand, our products can be found in the homes of South African collectors and abroad. Carrol Boyes is a trusted and celebrated brand; we pride ourselves in exceptional quality and recognizable style.

At the age of 35, she decided to start her own functional art business after 15 years of teaching. She experimented with jewellery before finding her niche in home decor accessories, and kitchenware. She launched her business in 1989 from her home in Cape Town where she focused on cuttlery and flatware specifically.

The first 3 years of her design and artwork, she worked with copper, silver, brass, and pewter. She created Verdigris candle sticks, jewellery, and assorted brass works. The public fell in love with these quirky and functional items for the home and are still in the homes of those who bought her first pieces from a small stall at Cape Town’s Greenmarket Square.

Art dealer, Peter Visser gave Carrol her first break after she gave up teaching by displaying and selling her pieces in his trendy store in Cape Town’s vibrant Loop Street. ‘’Each of her designs is a statement in itself, completely personal, fresh and different.” Peter Visser

Carrol’s ethos was to produce high quality, unique, quirky, and collectable pieces of art that could be used every day. Pieces to enjoy and pass down from generation to generation. The brand still holds this vision true to this very day.

In 1991, as her brand grew by word of mouth, with many people flocking to her stall in Greenmarket Square, Carrol quickly realised that she needed production on a larger scale to keep up with the demand for her homeware pieces. This is when the manufacturing plant opened in 1990 in Limpopo. The factory opened its doors with a staff complement of 12 which quickly grew to 350 employees.

Carrol’s father solved the need for a large-scale manufacturing plant by offering an empty building on their family farm to help Carrol in realising her dream. Charles, who had just graduated from university took this opportunity to assist her in setting up the factory, and in essence becoming a major role player in the brand.

The Limpopo plant is located near Tzaneen in the Northern Province, where the casting and stamping of the metals is done and larger items are assembled prior to their transportation to the head office in Cape Town. Carrol and her family were passionate about job security in the communities they lived and worked in - and the factory afforded the community the much-needed opportunity of being skilled and employed. With a headcount of 350 employees, the factory became the second biggest employer in the area affording skills development and job creation to local residents.

Four years later, in 2003, she opened the brand's first retail store at the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town. The flagship store marked the beginning of
Carrol Boyes' retail footprint, which grew to include a network of almost fifty stores across South Africa alongside a successful online presence.

Through these channels, the brand has continued to introduce Carrol's distinctive approach to functional art to collectors both locally and internationally.

Throughout her career, Carrol has been recognised for her achievements and her contribution to the design world. Her work has established a distinctive visual language in which sculpture and function exist side by side.

Today, the Carrol Boyes group brings together talented people and vendors from across South Africa, united by a commitment to quality and craftsmanship. The brand's archive holds decades of Carrol's original sketches, providing an enduring source of inspiration for the designers who continue to develop her visual language. Many of those who worked alongside Carrol over the years remain part of the creative legacy she established.

The result is a design house that continues to look forward while remaining deeply connected to its origins: creating objects that are made to be used, admired and lived with. Carrol Boyes' legacy lives on in every piece that brings sculpture to the everyday.