The candles are particularly eye-catching because of their bright colors and fine details.
In fact, bright colors are a signature piece of Swazi crafts, as is apparent in all of the other small shops that have since opened around Swazi Candles to capture the business of the tourists who find themselves there. Bright colors work simply. They attract people's attention. iPhone App colors are bright and saturated so you'll look at them longer. A dull color can leave a person uninterested and walking right by. Even in the case of black and white, it is possible to grab someone's attention with high contrast. This concept is something Swazis utilize in the marketing industry, and it is the one thing most crafts have in common: their bright colors. Additionally, the traditional clothing that Swazis wear to important events, often made up of two large pieces of fabric which they tie around their torso and waist, are also almost always two very bright colors.
Another thing to note is that many of the crafts that local Swazis sell are made of recycled or natural material. For example, the tote bags in Swazi Candles are made of recycled plastic, likely the plastic wiring that goes around large shipping boxes. One particularly talented craftsman I've met at Swazi Candles uses old wiring to mold model helicopters. His newest trick is placing a motor right under the propellor and hooking it up to a AA battery that fits in the cockpit so the propeller spins! I played with one of these models for almost an hour.
Besides recycled plastic, many of the crafts are made out of dried banana leaves, since they hold their structure. You'll often find large, beige mats made entirely out of large stems of grass woven together.
