New Work

Just a few more days and we fly back to Africa, our parallel universe. Here are a couple of new designs

hatched out lately.

Bracelet crocheted with pearl cotton, beaded, and attached to braided leather  band

Embroidered cuff on wool felt

How we make our ceramic beads

Please check my guest post at Beads of Clay

http://beads-of-clay.blogspot.com/2011/07/making-beads-in-africa-work-of-our.html

Also for you that love to play in clay. How to make Terra Sigilatta.http://beads-of-clay.blogspot.com/2011/06/terra-sigilatta.html

NEW POTTERY STUDIO AND YOUTH CENTER

OUR YOUTH CENTER AND POTTERY STUDIO WERE FINISHED WHILE WE WERE IN THE USA ! WHEN WE GET BACK AND MOVE IN, WE WILL HAVE A REAL STUDIO FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE WE WERE  WRONGLY EVICTED FROM THE PREVIOUS PLACE. NO MORE GARAGE, KITCHEN TABLE, AND SIDE PORCH AT MY HOUSE. A STUDIO AND  I GET MY HOUSE BACK :)

BEADS FOR SPRING

 I'm a nervous wreck about doing our first bead show. It's in Denver. April 16 and 17. 

 Of course we always want our artistic endeavors to be accepted and approved of, but more importantly, the ceramic bead part of Work Of Our Hands, has been a money pit! So many mistakes and learning curves for me, as well as the African artisans. We really NEED to reverse the money flow for this part of the project to continue.

NEW GIVE AWAY AND DISCOUNT

Ok, I wrote everyone's name down on 2 sheets of paper, cut the paper into little squares, and chose a name.

And the lucky winner is....Cerena Leigh!

As a big THANK YOU to everyone who entered...and as my discount offer for the BOC Open Studio Tour: I am offering 25% off my entire Etsy store from now until Monday morning, March 7.  Please use coupon code BOCMAR1 at check out to receive the discount.  http://www.shaterra.etsy.com/

And please take note.....there is another give away this Sunday, March 6 from 1 to 4!  I will be giving away 2 $25 gift certificates to my Etsy store during the Beads of Clay Open Studio Tour.  All studios in the tour will be offering discounts and give aways, and there is one big giveaway at the BOC blog, http://www.beads-of-clay.blogspot.com/.  Hope to hear from you on Sunday, I will be blogging live.

NEW BEAD DESIGNS

BEADS, BEADS, BEADS!

FOR OVER A WEEK I HAVE BEEN SORTING,COUNTING, PACKING, STRINGING, BEADS, BEADS, BEADS! DENVER BEAD SHOW HERE WE COME !

New Tribal style beads

Had terrible troubles with glaze over the holidays, turns out it was a bad batch of brush on glaze.( Too old)  But the good side is, it forced me into experimenting to make beads with no glaze. These beads are carved by the ladies in leather hard clay, then "painted" With Terra Sigillata. for shine without glaze. I'm really happy with the results.

GOING TO BERLIN

We are honored to be chosen by Namibia's ministry of Trade and Industry , to go to the Berlin Trade Fair November 10 -14   2010. But are we ever exhausted from getting ready! Today was the deadline to have everything ready to ship, so last night was very short :) as we finished up all the pricing and packing, and Lon finished up all the forms.  Isabella, (shown above), will be the person actually going to Berlin to represent us. We've come a long way, by God's grace, from those first beading classes!

Several people have asked " what now? " Since our ceramic bead work place is gone. In Africa people always "find a way" or "make a plan" when life's road blocks come along. It's very inspiring .

So my plan is to extend the roof off the back of our home, for a shaded outdoor work space. The kiln has been moved to the the garage . ( it took 8 young and strong guys ! It weighs 600 kilos, or 1,400 lb.)

Meet some of the bead artisans

New Work

Okawa Beads

We have named our beads Okawa. This means small treasure, or small and lovely in Oshiwambo, the language of the Ovambo people. The Ovambo make up our largest people group here in Namibia.

Okawa Bead artisans

Here area few of the bead artisans.

Our beads are hand rolled, or pressed into molds, then fired once. After the 1st firing, the beads are hand painted, glazed, and fired again at a higher temperature.

The process may sound simple, but it's actually very labor intensive, and the learning curve to get the firing right is a steep one. None of the beads can touch in the final firing, or they will stick together. Also the wires one puts them on, tend to sag in the high fireing heat so it is always a guess how close to place the wires.

New Venture

We have recently added ceramic bead making to our project in Namibia. Getting our beads imported is aways a problem here, and we hope this new venture will provide more jobs as well as lessen our imports. As our project purpose, is to to help the unemployed, we have always used Fair Trade principles. Now, we are starting to wade through the paper work to begin the long process of certification.