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Harriet Kelsall
11th October 2010 16:41

Beautiful handmade African beads

 

A few months ago, I read an interesting article in 'The Jeweller' Magazine (the National Association of Goldsmiths' publication). It involved a jeweller called Paul Spurgeon who has been working with a man called Nqobile Nkosi in Soweto.

I was very interested to read the article which explained that Paul had decided to work with an organisation called Vukani-Ubuntu whose aim is to empower black individuals. He formed a particular relationship with Nqobile who came from a large family living in poor conditions in Soweto township, but who had a huge amount of energy and drive. Paul decided to set him up in business by helping with the tools and training that he needed to make the very first jewellery retail and manufacturers in the Township. His aim was to empower Nqobile to mainly sell locally and to give him the independence to run the business himself without constant hand-outs.

Here is a picture of Nqobile along with his tools donated from the UK.

Nqobile with tools

I called Paul and chatted with him at length about the project wondering what I could do to help what sounded like a very worthy project. He asked me if I might buy some of Nqobile's jewellery to sell in our shop but of course we don't sell anybody else's jewellery than our own so this wouldn't fit.

After some more thought, I remembered about another project that I had been working on - designing some new bracelets for our Christmas collection. I had been trying to find some beautiful handmade beads to use for these bracelets but hadn't found anything that was quite right. When I asked Paul if Nqobile might be able to hand make some glass beads to my specifications that I could then use in these designs, I was delighted that the answer came back as a 'yes please!'.

After a bit more to-ing and fro-ing about exactly what I wanted, I was ready to order the beads which only took a few weeks to make. When they arrived I was blown away by how beautiful they are. I ordered 65 beads, yet no two beads were actually the same as each other! Each one handmade and beautiful. Here are a few of them which we have photographed.

Handmade beads

I am currently working with these beautiful little pieces of art to include in these bracelet designs and hope to sell these bracelets in our showrooms in late November.

Paul also tells me that he is now working with a group of women in Kenya who hope to set up making and selling jewellery. I have offered to show them a few designs and techniques which I think will be helpful to them so that they can make pieces that I think will sell either locally or possibly for an export market. I hope that I can help a little there.

I think the fact that these beads help to get Nqobile moving in the jewellery business make them even more special. And the idea from Paul is not to give him charity hand-outs but to actually help build a proper business that is self sufficient. If you would like to find out more about buying some of Nqobile's beads or finished jewellery he would be very interested to hear from you please call Paul on 01223 891181 or e-mail: info@paulspurgeondesign.

Harriet

Harriet Kelsall
 

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  • Harriet Kelsall Jewellery Design, North Barn, Fairclough Hall Farm, Halls Green, Weston, Hertfordshire, SG4 7DP, England
    Phone: +44 (0)1462 790565 Fax: +44 (0)1462 790140 enquiries@hkjewellery.co.uk
  • Harriet Kelsall Jewellery Design, 6/7 Green Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB2 3JU, England.
    Phone: +44 (0)1223 461333 Fax: +44 (0)1223 365269 cambridge@hkjewellery.co.uk

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