From African Development to developing a Craft Business
Had you asked me 10 years ago if I would be designing jewelry today, I would have said it was the farthest thing from my mind. But that was before a stressful job propelled me to take a beading class to do something with my hands other than the writing that eluded me and wringing of necks that, well, just wasn’t kosher. Upon hindsight, however, jewelry design is a natural extension of my background of working with beading cooperatives in Africa and my love of taking disparate materials and textures and melding them into something that resounds together.
I have a passion for working with recycled glass beads, recycled vinyl, and metals from West Africa which use techniques passed down from generations and which provide economic opportunities for these communities. My style is ethnocentric as well as an eclectic mix of design and methods that anyone would feel comfortable in.
Rather than having a strict notion of how to begin each project, the beads, themselves, inspire me; I let them speak to me. Their shape, color, and material dictate what I do with them and what I am led to envision. I find that the various textures of beads that I’ve collected from all over the world ─ each with its unique history—has a story to be told. I am just the conduit.
