Fabulosity

Model : Tunde Kiss

Photographer: Nadine Ijewere

Make up : Grace Gray

Ethnic Editorial Shoot - Behind the Scenes

Time for some more behind the scenes fun!

Another collaboration with Photographer Nadine Ijewere, Make up artist Grace Gray and Stylist Ib Kamara

Enjoy!

A Thank You!

We would like to dedicate a special post to a customer all the way from Morocco who sent in some great photos of him rocking his Amaziah piece

If you're a customer, please send in pics of how great you look wearing your Amaziah jewellery!

Happy New Year & Some Fabulous Pics

Hey everyone! We hope you had a fantastic New Year!

Please let us know if you have any resolutions! Ours is to rock 2012! We have loads of fantastic things coming up, Amaziah jewellery will not only get it's website back but is set to be sold in several other venues too! We have loads of gorgeous campaigns planned and will even be shooting for an Amaziah calendar later in the year!

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 We have released the fabulous photos from our latest shoot!

Thanks to the beautiful model - Samar https://www.facebook.com/pages/2Face-Gemini/108437735867361
Photographer - Eric Schneider
MUA - Mika

Enjoy the photos!

 Moroccan coral bead vintage necklace

Recycled rope earrings & Vintage coral bead Moroccan Necklace

Vintage 'lucky charm' Berber pendant (worn on head) Grey terracotta hand painted necklace from Ghana

Recycled glass beads from Ghana

 Amber resin and coral 'tangerine' necklace with silver 'khamsa'

Recycled paper beaded necklace, Moroccan semi precious stone neckpiece

Boda through Kireka

One of my favourite pastimes in Kampala.

A boda boda is essentially a motobike, a form of transport, supposedly quick and easy. I hear it got it's name in the 60's because there was a need to cross "no mans land" between the border of Uganda and Kenya without the paperwork necessary when travelling by car, so the boda boda men would to offer rides across the border to Kenya. To attract customers they would shout "border border" which sounded like "boda boda" hence the name. Who knows if that's true.

          

 Yes, I do have to do the obligatory tourist pose. 

Despite having seen countless crashes, scrapes with cars, huge bruises, broken bones, and even a dead person. I can't help but jump onto a boda boda. 

They are very cheap (just DON'T take your first price, ask a local the rates to go around town) and pretty fast for dodging traffic, although I must admit; I've scraped my knees on a few vehicles thanks to over enthusiastic boda boda drivers trying to squeeze through non existent gaps. 

Looking unashamedly like a tourist (actually, trying to pretend I was texing) I filmed these roads in Kireka on my way to the Women of Kireka workshop, just so you lovely followers can get a feel for what it's like, yes, its a very bumpy ride, Enjoy.

The Women Behind The Beads - Women of Kireka.

Back in 2007 I found myself in the middle of Kireka, being hassled by men and being called "Mzungu" (white person) five thousand times a day by little kids with barely any clothes to wear. There were no roads or lights and I, with my Western senses consequently fell down several holes each night.

Kireka ia a small town on the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda. Some call it a slum, some refer to it as an internal refugee camp.

However  I knew none of this until this year. 

On my journey back to Uganda (for the 4th time) to collect more jewellery and make more links with local jewellery producing projects, I found out that Kireka was home to exactly what I was looking for, I was back to where I started again. 

Kireka is reffered to as an internal displacement/refugee camp as during the war in Northern Uganda, survivors and refugees fled to Kampala to escape the danger and to start a new life.

                                                  (dismalworld.com)

And thats just what the Women of Kireka did, escaping the violence and bloodsheed of the North, they began a new life in Kireka earning a minimal wage smashing rocks on the nearby rock quarry. 

                                                   

Work on the quarry is tiresome and dangerous (see above video), I asked my guide, Bridget if the workers ever fell down the quarry and she told me they frequently did, many have died and many have also lost fingers whilst crushing the rocks. I tried, but couldn't even begin to imagine a life where I had to flee disaster, leaving everything behind to be greeted with the promise of smashing rocks daily for the foreseeable future, knowing that my life and my children's lived depended on it, but were also at risk from it. The hope that the women have is shocking but inspirational. I wondered if their joy and ease in talking about their lives and the quarry was a front because they knew I was a visitor, I don't even have the capability to imagine such hope and strength. 

                   

The Women of Kireka project was set up, to enable the women to earn an income so they don't have to spend so many back breaking hours on a dangerous quarry. They create wonderful beads from recycled paper, so not only are they able to earn money to feed their children, but these beads are great for the environment, ensuring that newspapers and magazines are put to great use, they are now fabulous wearable pieces rather than piling up on the rubbish dumps! 

Here are some photos from the WoK workshop and a video of Bridget explaining how the paper beads are created. Please ask for permission before using photos.

                                 

The women

The women at the project all have different stories, most enough to break your heart, yet they have so much joy and happiness you wonder how it's possible. Although the project has greatly improved their lives, they still cannot yet afford to leave work at the quarry. The women, just like all of us, still hold on to their personal ambitions, many of them wanting to gain skills like tailoring to make a better living, the WoK project is working slowly towards expanding into these areas to give the women a better future. 

Some of the women I met and a little bit about them

          Achiro Elder

Elder fled to Kampala from Northern Uganda in 2000. She works with her husband on the stone quarry to support her three children. She hopes to find a new livelihood soon as she finds the work at the quarry physically demanding. She would love to be trained in tailoring, something she believes she could excel in, and dreams of opening a bakery.


                                                Akech Santa

Santa fled to Kampala from Northern Uganda in 1994. As she suffers crippling back pains, she hopes to stop working on the quarry and continue assisting the expansion of Women of Kireka



                                                       Abonyo Sarah

Fleeing the Lord's Resistance Army in Northern Uganda, Sarah and her family came to Kampala. She works with her husband on the Kireka quarry. She hopes Women of Kireka will eventually help her open her own tailoring business where the work will be less strenuous than on the Kireka quarry.


                                            Achen Jasinta


Jasinta moved to the quarry in 1998 to provide for her 10 children and her husband, who is mentally impaired. She desperately needs another source of income to make ends meet and hopes Women of Kireka will help her develop new business skills.

The beads

These are some of the beads that the WoK have produced, they are all for sale at Amaziah Jewellery, please check https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150403001357779.351533.148541962778&type=1 for more sale items.


I also have a large amount of lose beads which I will be turning into items like this:


If you have any requests for items you would like made, or would like to buy some loose beads to create your own jewellery, please comment or email enquiries@amaziahjewellery.com


Remember, every purchase helps to better the lives of these wonderful women!

Amaziah Jewellery is non profit!

                                        

www.womenofkireka.com