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KAZURI - Where Beads are Changing Lives Their faces are a study in concentration as beads come to life in their skilled hands. Tens of women sit in neat rows, each with brass spacer that resembles an abacus in front of her. On the spacers there are beads of all shapes and sizes. Some of the women prepare them for firing; others paint the already-fired beads and string the finished beads together to make necklaces and bracelets. The end result is simply breathtaking-the finished beads feel as smooth as glass and they twinkle and shine in their coats of many colours. This is the Kazuri Beads factory in Karen, Nairobi home of beautiful hand-made beads produced by single mothers.
The story of Kazuri dates back to 1975, when Lady Susan Wood's fascination with beads began. She was born in 1918 in the then Belgian Congo to missionary parents. She met Michael Wood, a surgeon, while training as a nurse in Oxford. They married and relocated to East Africa in 1974, moved to Tanzania in 1961 and finally settled in Kenya in 1975. She lived with her husband, in Karen, where she started collecting beads and making necklaces as a hobby. She learnt how to glaze, and mould clay, and eventually bought two kilns for firing her beads.
