Craftastic adventure #1

Hallo Friends!

As I narrated you in the September Diary I'm trying to train myself in the field of selling crafts items improving the communication. Following this new path I recently red about an interesting article where the author, an Italian crafter called Rita , was describing how important is to narrate the history of the handmade products.

I agree very much that every and each creation has its story that comes from the idea of the item itself, the material choose, the process to make it and the packaging. So I decided to share with you this history of my favourites creations, the ones that I'm really happy about, the ones where I did put a lot of care, the one that make me proud.

To introduce you to this journey is fundamental to understand the material I use. Choosing the right materials is the most complicated and fascinating part of my craft work. Sometimes I already know what I want to make, sometimes I see something and get inspired to make an item with that object, sometimes I see something very pretty and I leave in a box, waiting for the inspiration. So each and every material has its own history. Then we have to remember that we are in Nairobi, the place where everything is possible but not everything is available.

So let me introduce you to my recent and favorite craft material: western African beads. I saw them around and I used four months to find where to buy them. They are made of a very strong material not yet understood if plastic, glass or ceramic (next time I'll visit the shop I'll ask and let you know). The colours are very vibrant and each bead has been handmade painted.

As I was saying I took months to find the shop where to buy them and a very nice lady led me there. It is located in down town and this woman, called Irene, took me in a small alley then inside a building climbing a dark stair. I've to confess that be led by a stranger in a building made me worried a bit but, once the stairs ended and I saw the shop all the fear went away. There in a building in the middle of Nairobi Town there is a community of Ghaneans who live in Kenya for 50 years and they have small shops where they sell western African crafts. In the shop (where I couldn't take pictures) there are milion of coloured beads, pedants, necklaces, materials and small objects. The owner of the shop is very friendly and talktive, was a bit surprised to see me there but happy to share with me his stories.

So here the wonderful beads I choose, I'm planning to go back soon and hopefully take some photos. I'm making things with these wonderful beads and here I post the first but I'm planning to make many more (to be updated follow me on instagram)