These colorful and unique glass bead bracelets are handmade by recycling glass, such as the blue bottles seen below. The African artisans creating these bracelets melt down used glass bottles, and then fire the new beads in mud brick ovens.
- Wide Bracelets measure roughly 3" in Diameter
Each mud fire pit can hold about 50 molds (3 beads/mold) to create about 150 beads. This process enables them to make about 21 necklaces per day.
About 40 people work at this workshop which is located about an hour outside the capital of Accra in a very nice rural setting. The owner and founder of the group is a woman named Florence Asare. Although it is traditional for men to smash, fire, mold and paint the beads, the women are in charge of creating the designs, producing the product and handle most of the sales and marketing. Below is a photo of the sales manager inside the workshop showroom.
Here's the production process for creating these glass beads:
Break old bottles into pieces
Sieve the pieces and take the chips
Put chips into clay molds - each mold has holes for the desired bead's shape and size
Place mold in fire pit (burns with wood) - for 45 minutes
While beads are hot, use metal stick to make hole and shape bead around edges
Let cool for 1 hour
"Wash" beads in sand and water on a flat rock
Paint as desired
Put beads back into molds and then back into fire for about 10 minutes to set paint