Kenyan Beads – Handmade, Detailed and Beautiful
On the outskirts of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, at the foot of the Ngon’g Hills, sits the farm immortalized in Karen Blixen’s ‘Out of Africa’. The title of the book and the film comes from the Latin saying that translates as ‘There is always something new out of Africa’. Nearly thirty years ago, that saying came true again, with the birth of Kazuri Beads.
The colorful ceramic beads made in Kazuri on the former Blixen estate are now famous throughout the world and are featured in the Gratitude Collection. The Signature “g” bead from the Gratitude Collection is made exclusively for the collection by Kazuri workers.
Lady Susan Wood, an African-born Englishwoman, and her doctor husband were committed to the welfare of the Kenyan people. In the 1970s, Susan Wood founded a small project to help and empower women without any other means of support. That company became Kazuri Beads, a fair trade project that empowers the local population.
Meaning ‘small and beautiful’ in Swahili, the project that started with two underprivileged women working in a garden shed now provides employment to several hundred people in need, especially women. It has created a source of income for many women who otherwise would have had few options to support themselves and their families, including many women with disabilities, single mothers, and women widowed by the AIDS epidemic that has swept Africa .
The Kazuri beads are made from clay sourced from the foothills of the Kenyan Highlands mountains, providing income for small farmers in the area. The clay is processed at the Kazuri plant to remove impurities. Feldspar and quartz are added and the raw material is further treated to create a high quality clay.
The clay is then turned by hand into ceramic beads that are first fired in the sun before being fired in electric kilns at temperatures above 1100 degrees Celsius. The beads are then individually hand painted and glazed before being re-fired. Quality clay, expert paint, and meticulous quality control mean the beads are flawless, though power outages sometimes disrupt the process and ruin entire batches.
Kazuri beads come in an astonishing variety of styles and designs: disks, tubes, and even shell shapes. Colors are bright and vibrant or earthy and warm. Patterns and styles are innovative while recalling traditional designs. This is African jewelry but its style is contemporary and global while also having an ethnic and folk art flavor. Because each bead is meticulously hand-painted, each one bears the artistic stamp of the individual creator. The names of many of the different beads evoke their African origins: Acacia; benin splash; Kalahari; Sahara sand.
The women who work at Kazuri Beads do more than just make and paint the beads. The finished beads are made into many styles of necklaces, bracelets, and earrings that are exported around the world. Beads are applied to sandals, handbags, and other items, and the project has also ventured into making other ceramic items.
