Christine Jacobs is a furniture designer and fine artist who grew up on a sheep farm near the small town of Trompsburg in Free State province. Her family has produced Merino fine wool for international markets for six generations – a legacy that ignited her interest in the natural environment, the land and its human habitation. In both her design and artwork, Jacobs aims to create a traceable link and engender a deeper understanding of the relationship between products, manufacturing, craft and farming.

Born in 1992, Jacobs completed a fine art degree at the University of Stellenbosch in 2014. For three years thereafter she explored functional form as an assistant to interior designer Joan Viljoen. In 2016 she launched her own range of furniture, the Jacobs Collection™, at 100% Design South Africa and was selected as a Design Indaba Emerging Creative in 2019.  Later that year, she introduced a new seating range incorporating hand-felted Merino wool from her family’s farm and won the Best Stand Award with Wolkberg Castings at 100% Design South Africa.

Other business endeavours include founding STIL Design Gallery in collaboration with Monique Vee in Franschhoek which exhibited contemporary homeware and furniture from emerging and established South African designers.

She returned to her artistic roots with the creation of Felt(veld)scape, first shown at the 2022 Investec Cape Town Art Fair and subsequently, at Spring Awakening, a monumental group exhibition at Southern Guild. Following that, she had works featured in On Lines and Lineage, another group show with the gallery held in the Cape Winelands at Cavalli Estate. Jacobs’ first solo exhibition with Southern Guild, Enfold, opened in October 2023. The presentation featured the artist’s largest body of sculptural felt works to date and a selection of expansive charcoal drawings.

Jacobs currently lives and works in Franschhoek.