Kazuri Beads

We have this link on each Kazuri bead page on our website, but thought we would post it here, too. This is a very informative article about the Kazuri project that was posted by the BBC. Kazuri, as a company has changed a lot since this article was written, with massive backorders as Kazuri UK and Kazuri America create huge demands. But, it is fabulous to see them continue to grow and change to meet the demands of today's marketplace.
Kazuri Beads

Maria Theresa Thaler Pendant

Victorian Era Ear Cleaner/Pick from Ethiopia

Telsum

Hand Beads

Trade Bead Bracelet - For Inspiration

Books we Keep on Hand for Research

We have found these books to be very helpful in our bead research. Soon, we will list all of the websites we use as resources, as well.


Beads, An Exploration of Bead Traditions Around the World, by Janet Coles and Robert Budwig
The History of Beads, by Lois Sherr Dobin
Beads of the World, By Peter Francis, Jr.
Millefiori Beads - Any edition by Picard
A Universal Aesthetic, Collectible Beads, by Robert K. Liu
Africa Adorned, by Angela Fisher
African Ark, by Angela Fisher
African Ceremonies, Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher

SilverChicks and the African Trade Beads

Many, many of you know the story of how SilverChicks.com became entangled in the web of Trade Beads, but for those of you who do not, I thought that I would share.

Let me start with the SilverChicks story....

Valissa and I went on vacation together during the summer of 2002. We had been long time friends at that point and we had both just moved to new homes, and we had just developed the beading bug... We both liked to make jewelry, but everytime we went to a retail store to buy beading supplies we had severe sticker shock and put our heads together to figure out how to buy beads for a better price, quality sterling silver and fancy findings.

So, we did the research, figured out how and where to buy beads to make our jewelry with - and then needed to figure out what to do with the extra beads (we were buying bulk). And that is how SilverChicks made their debut on eBay in August 2002. We would literally buy sterling silver beads and real gemstone beads, make a piece of jewelry and then post the extra beads. What shocked us was the positive response, it encouraged us to keep going, and by December 2002 we were pulling our hair out trying to make it all work and keep up with the holiday eBay purchases. The tricky part for us, has always been, that we have been running our business from two different geographical locations. At that time, one of us was in Monterey, California and the other Houston, Texas.

In January 2003 we launched our website. It was small, but oh so beautiful. Our friend and brilliant artist, Chris Cart developed our site. We continued to be shocked by our success. Here we were, two terribly busy mommies, running a successful website and providing our families with some serious fun money. Who would have guessed?

In July 2003, I left for Africa, wished Valissa luck with the website and continuing to grow our business. She kept on trucking, developing relationships with hoity toity boutiques and creating a massive and loyal following.

I landed in Ethiopia, and literally the same week started looking for beads. What a change from the sterile bead markets Valissa and I have visited. The beads were DIRTY, the prices weren't set, and according to every bead dealer they were all as precious as diamonds. When I realized none were actually .925 sterling and all of the bead dealers told me that they were all hundreds of years old, I thought, "Not interested.".

Within a month, I went on a shopping trip with a number of other ex-pats, and remember now to my chagrin, saying to one lovely, willing to mentor, true bead collector, "Those are NOT silver", when she was looking at telsum. I was just not feeling the love.

Then, I met CHEVRONS. I had been seeing eye beads and feather beads, annulars, and vaseline beads almost everywhere that I went, copal/amber/plastic - you name it, but I hadn't seen any marvelous chevrons. When I did, I was a convert. I went crazy on bead research, most of it painfully done on dial-up internet connections that easily timed out. I started going to the bead shops with a notebook and writing down what the dealers told me, I learned to haggle, and I learned to dig in and get dirty and scrounge, literally, for beads. I was a BELIEVER!

And, that is how we came to be converts to African Bead people. Once I developed a taste for it, I spent hours and hours in bead shops, looking at them, taking my bead books in and cataloging them, thinking about them....

That is the story behind our love affair with Trade Beads.

River Friendly River Wild, by Jane Kurtz

Author Jane Kurtz Donates Book, River Friendly River Wild

Award winning children's author, Jane Kurtz, donates book, River Friendly River Wild, proceeds of sales go to the Ethiopian Books for Children and Education Foundation.

(PRWEB) September 6, 2005 -- In April of 1997--on her birthday--award-winning children’s book author Jane Kurtz had to evacuate her house in Grand Forks, North Dakota, because water from the Red River was spilling over nearby dikes in what would turn into a “five hundred year flood,” something that had never before happened.
She and her family took one small suitcase each, assuming they would be back within days. Instead, they didn’t get to see their house for six weeks. “In some ways,” she says, “we were among the lucky ones. The water in our house hadn’t covered the second floor. And neighbors had helped us move some things from the garden basement level before we left.” She adds, though, that in those weeks spent in the muck and grime of cleanup, she almost wished her house, like those of her neighbors, had been destroyed. She learned about survivor guilt and endurance in the years it took Grand Forks to recover. She also learned about how a community can pull together and cling to stories, memories, and hope.
All of her feelings and experiences, she poured into a picture book that was published by Simon & Schuster in 2000, River Friendly River Wild.”“During my author visits around the country in the past few years,” Kurtz says, “teachers and librarians have told me they cried as they read River Friendly River Wild aloud to students. That’s what books do. They bridge the gaps in human experiences and help us understand a little of what another person has gone through.” From her own experiences, she knows that classrooms and libraries everywhere will be discussing the flooding in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana--and the flood of refugees who had to leave their cities and homes--during the fall. She hopes that her book will be part of those discussions.
Kurtz has donated copies of River Friendly River Wild to a project she’s now deeply involved with, EBCEF, (www.ethiopiareads.org) in the simplest of terms, EBCEF is attempting to put books into the hands of Ethiopian children. Buying one of these copies of River Friendly River Wild, available at www.silverchicks.com, she says, will do “double duty. It will provide operating money for the Ethiopian book project and also give teachers, parents, grandparents, or librarians a way to help children know there’s always hope.”
Since Jane grew up as a reader and a writer in the country of Ethiopia, she knows how important books can be for planting vision and hope.
For more information about EBCEF, please visit their website www.ethiopiareads.org. EBCEF is a 501 c (3) non-profit organization established for the purpose of promoting children's book publishing, reading, literacy and the development of education in Ethiopia. The funds for EBCEF come from private donations, from grants and fund raising activities. Your contributions are tax-deductible as allowed by law. For more information about Jane Kurtz, please visit www.janekurtz.com.
For more information about EBCEF and it's projects or SilverChicks.com, please contact Catie Dupont at ethiopaireads@aol.com.