The enchantingly magical Soil Room, located inside the Cowshed Shop, reflects Spier Wine Farm’s passion for regenerative living and design-art, offering alternatives to rushed festive season shopping. Not a drop of tinsel in sight here, but plenty to bring a twinkle to the eye.
An inspiring gallery of living thing
The Soil Room is layered with greenery. From indigenous indoor plants and swathes of dangly airplants – like ouman se baard – to locally grown festive yellowwood trees, designed to live for decades of seasons to come.
A lush, living space of plants and purpose
Handmade wreaths off the farm, terracotta planters, aromatherapy candles and dinky compostable seedling tubs are all part of collections curated to stir life and intention into your home. Locally made designer straw hats, hand thrown ceramics, and dried plant foliage as decor add to the joy and delight of browsing.
The art of ecoskeletons by Chris van Niekerk
Chris van Niekerk, a horticulturist turned conceptual botanical artist, crafts insect sculptures he calls Ecoskeletons. Working from his insectarium art studio in McGregor, Chris uses dried plant material such as leaves, seeds, bark, thorns, and roots to create intricate insect forms.
“Working with preserved and dried plant material, I create botanical insects by carefully shaping leaves, seeds, thorns, roots, bark, grass, and other botanical finds into realistic looking miniature sculptures,” says van Niekerk. “I do not aim to create taxonomically correct insect species. It is an organic process of combining botanical matter in a way which blurs the line between naturalism and illusionism to create a unique form of art. It is about foraging examples of similitude in nature and metamorphosising it into insect forms.”
Van Niekerk draws inspiration from the abundant protea and fynbos plant kingdom where he lives. He explains, “When dried, these materials are exceptionally tough and richly textured.”
Each sculpture is preserved with biodegradable shellac resin, derived from the secretion of the LAC insect, ensuring the work remains resilient and environmentally friendly.
Creativity and seasonal treasures
The Soil Room also features a collection of botanical inks from Forage Studio made from ethically foraged indigenous South African plants. These inks are part of a larger intention to connect creativity with regenerative practices.
Alongside them are woven baskets, collectible objects like giant wood-carved mushrooms, and other treasures created with love, care and intention—made to last well beyond the festive season.
As an extension of the Cowshed, The Soil Room is a statement about how design, art and the world of nature can coexist with meaning. A reminder that what we give, take, make, collect and find beautiful can be approached with integrity and purpose.
Visit The Soil Room, open daily from 09h00 - 17h00 to experience this magical expression of nature and design-art in synergy.