Have you ever bought any of Rafiki’s ceramic jewelry – either from the Exchange at the Home Office or online? A year or so ago, I wrote about the beginning of the Widows’ Program and the beginning of Rafiki’s ceramic jewelry, but this week I want to tell you how it all got started.
First, I had learned to make ceramics as a part of my training to be an occupational therapist in the Army. Years later when my three daughters needed to make a little money, I taught them how to make ceramic beads. I bought them each a small kiln and we worked out how to take a small piece of clay and roll it between our palms until it was a perfectly round bead. Then we put a hole in it to fit a rod which we got from NASA (yes, really!) because it needed to withstand temperatures of around 2,000 degrees. We then fired the beads at a lower degree producing bisque. The next step was to paint glaze on them and re-fire them at the higher temperature. It was a long process, but my daughters were pleased, able to get findings (clasps and spacers to string between the beads), and design necklaces. Their products were lovely, and we started a little business called JAKATO JEWELRY where we even sold them at SAKS!
When the bishop of the Lutheran Church in Tanzania asked Rafiki to help the poor disabled widows in his country, I suggested that we could teach the widows to make ceramic jewelry to sell in Tanzania’s game parks.
My artist daughter Kathy Cook (website https://www.katherinecookart.com) who at that time lived near me in San Antonio, Texas, agreed to teach two missionary couples (Wayne and Leslie Emery and Ed and Jerri Prenzlow) to make this ceramic jewelry. I laugh when I remember that Kathy turned her living-room into an art studio and spent weeks teaching these two couples to make beads, string them (on dental floss because it doesn’t break) and design necklaces. When the two couples arrived in Tanzania they asked (artist) Kathy to produce the designs for them. And so she did. She drew the necklace design on paper, suggested the colors, and what spacers they could use. Sometimes she suggested pendants. Then she emailed the designs to them. It worked well.
However, one of the problems they faced in Tanzania was getting the right kind of clay, glazes, and findings. But God had gone ahead of us and given us friends (Dr. Michael Wood who started the Flying Doctor Service) and his wife Susan who had lived on a farm up on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania before moving to Kenya where Susan worked with widows making ceramics. Susan helped us get the clay in Nairobi and sent it to Usa River, Tanzania, where our widows worked. She also helped me go to Nairobi to the market where I could get findings and pendants made in Ethiopia. One of the very first necklaces our widows made was one designed by Kathy and produced by our widows using the findings and a pendant from Ethiopia. See it here:
I love this piece and still wear it today. As for the widows in Tanzania, they are still making jewelry using Kathy’s designs to this day and selling it. Now Rafiki helps widows in other countries not only make jewelry but sell it for them in our Exchange. I hope you will take a look at it on Rafiki’s website.
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