Bead Adventure, Ghana, Part Deux

Our first morning in Kumasi, we head for Darbaa where we will be taking our beadmaking workshop from the Asamudus. When we arrive, there is a welcoming ceremony and then we tour the town. This wonderful pink house is the local home of the country's current President Kufour. I love this color. When we discuss color later in the trip, I learn that there are very few color names. Reminds me of other cultures that don't have the rich vocabulary we do for colors. They do recognize that the colors aren't the same, they just don't have names for them.

Two beautiful frangipani (which grow everywhere here), one white and one raspberry pink.

Charles and Daniel show two cassava melons. Later I buy a bead of laterite (bauxite) that looks like this. Daniel is the second oldest son of Michael Asamudu.

This is the site of the old beadmaking workshop. Note all the discarded molds. Richard told us that a mold may be used for some years before the beads no longer come out. We also find lots of discarded beads as we are walking around town! Oh yeah, that's the back of John Haigh our illustrious tour guide in the purple and yellow shirt.

Ghanains will use whatever is at hand - A++ points for recycling! I found the use of a bead mold for a stair step particularly interesting.

Later I'll be used to how much grows here, but at this point in the trip I was still amazed. Look at the size of these gourds! I saw these used for lots of things, and also some that were decorated. I wish that I had seen one when we were shopping - but I didn't. Guess I'll have to go back for that!

Plaintains grow everywhere. At every go-slow there would be someone selling them. Also, we would see bags of sliced and fried plaintains, one of my favorite treats at home. But alas, since they aren't still hot, we have to pass in case we might get sick.

These orange trees belong to Michael Asamudo. They are growing out behind the workshop. We take a short side trip on our way to see where the clay comes from in order to see them. Oranges are also found at nearly every go-slow. In Florida, you have to have a quick cold snap to get the juiciest, sweetest oranges. But you never get a cold snap in Ghana, yet the oranges are deliciously sweet and juicy!

Our colorful parade out to the clay digging area. That's Diane with the backpack and Trish with the umbrella. Trish, who has lived in Ghana for 8 years, and Africa for more than 11 years, knows all the good tricks for making life a wee bit easier here.

The town of Darbaa is out in the country, about an hour drive from our hotel in Kumasi. It might not be that far really, but the traffic is slow. And of course, we don't find out about the short-cut back to town until the very last trip back! No one seems to have mentioned it since the roads are all dirt that way, but it only takes us about 15 minutes that way! What a hoot!

Okay, this is a big pile of slimy clay. Bwwaaa! I walked all the way out here just to see this? Well, everyone else is interested, Barbara!

Back in the workshop we take a look at the various kilns. This one and one other are inside the workshop - but guess what? I don't think they every get used. The real kilns are out back under a thatched gazebo.

Here's a picture of Michael and the larger of the two kilns. Note that it is made with the same clay that the molds are made from. The shape is also used for the bread kilns that we saw elsewhere.

Here's Richard and the large kiln. Richard teaches us the workshop while his father goes with UNESCO to Italy. An unfortunate timing sends several of the artisans that we came all this way to see to Italy just at the same time that we are in Ghana. The universe strikes again! But Richard has been making beads since he was 9, and that makes it 18 years that he has been doing this. And he is a lovely young man, smiling often. I suppose he thinks we are funny sometimes, but his charming manner never wavers.

Everyone had questions about the use of the two kilns. For some reason I seem to have caught Trish from the back in almost every picture today. Anyway, I love her clothes and she promises to take me to her batik seller and clothes maker. It's clear that I am not terribly interested at this point in how hot the kilns might be. I'm so very hot myself that I can't even IMAGINE what it would be like to fire this big kiln. They use wood to fire, and there is no thermostat.

Diane and Richard look more closely into the smaller of the two kilns. Diane works with ceramics and so is quite interested to see how this kiln works. I would have liked to show a picture of the art that Diane makes, but even though I asked repeatedly for a postcard, and told her that I would put it on my site, she never wanted to give me one.

Here is just one stack of bead molds. The first thing that we are going to do now in our workshop is to make a mold. I'm going to put all the workshop pictures on one page. We went to the workshop in the mornings and then did something else in the afternoons. Diane and Carol only went the one morning, since Diane was here to retrace some of her childhood.

Our first afternoon in Kumasi we visited some Hausa ladies who are making beads from plastic trash. We stopped on the way and got sodas and Trish bought some Ghanaian chocolate for us to try. I really liked it! It isn't as sweet as Americans are used to, probably less milk too - but more cocoa butter. Yummy! Anyway, these ladies are making some very colorful plastic beads, but the fumes are extremely toxic. We are all a little upset about that, and even more so since one of the women is pregnant and there are several children running around. I guess there isn't much else for them to do, and I hope that they will make some money. But they surely do need some fans to move the fumes away.

You can see in this picture how they have a setup a little like a hibachi, where they burn coal. They melt the plastic items and stir it with a modified machete. They have to keep stirring it so that it remains evenly heated. Then they add a stripe or two of color. The colors are regular dyes. To the far right of the picture you can see an enamel bowl with some plastic items in it that will be added when the supply in the hibachi runs low.

Now she begins to twirl the bamboo stick while keeping just a tail of the plastic wrapping around it. This part goes quite quickly. Or should I say, these skillful beadmakers made this part go quickly. It sure looked like it would take some practice!

Here is another shot showing the stick twirling part. The plastic doesn't look like much until it is twirled, then the color shows up and it looks like candy!

Another beadmaker showing us the plastic items that she recycles into beads. Note the sticks of beads that are done on the right of the picture. The beads slide right off the stick once they are cool.

Notice that the color of the base bead using these orangish jars is going to be slightly orange.

Lots and lots of colorful plastic beads. Very cheap. We had a little problem buying them for a couple reasons. The Hausa ladies are just learning to speak English. And they are more used to selling to traders, who buy a quantity at a time. We only wanted to buy a bracelet or two. We did see these beads at the bead markets that we visited later in the week. In Kumasi, in Odumase and in Agamenya.

John bought a bunch of beads. They even had beaded sandals and a beaded curtain.

Yes, it's still the same day, our first day in Kumasi. We are now visiting with some people whose business is making and selling pots. These pots are for cooking. The method may not be used for a whole lot longer since it is physically tasking and the daughters and granddaughters are not interested in doing it. The granddaughter helps by keeping supplies at hand, and helping to make the fire.
The pots are made on the ground, but they look as if they were made on a wheel. The ladies (both are 70 years old) act like the wheel by turning round and round as they make the pot. They move quickly and surely and we are terribly impressed!

Please notice the wrap around skirts and head covers. These ladies stayed bent over like this until the pot is completed, maybe 10 minutes. They scooted round and round. It made me ache just watching, but it didn't seem to bother them. Charles asked them for us, and they admitted that it was hard on their backs. And then smiled at us.

Notice in this picture that there are bags and bags of supplies in the background. There are piles of things all around, this is their studio, here in between buildings. The ground seems to be just packed dirt.

These ladies worked together quietly and efficiently. I wondered whether they chatted together more when there weren't any spectators.

This lady (and I regret not getting their names) demonstrates trimming the bottom from a rather thick flat one to a lovely rounded bottom. Much cooking is done directly on a fire. You smell the wood burning nearly all the time. Wood fires are used for any heating, even though we did see stoves and refrigerators being sold, I guess they aren't terribly common as yet. But that is changing.

If you've ever made pots, you know that a practiced person is able to judge the thickness by feel.

The last part of the demonstration shows a number of small pots being fired. Yes, right there on the ground, using wood. Gives a lovely finish.

I love the smiles in this picture, can't remember what the joke was. I didn't see anyone anywhere with bad teeth, by the way. And just the most beautiful smiles.

I wanted to show in this picture, not just how the fire was lighted and fanned, but also the large group of children that gathered to watch us watching the demo! They all want to shake our hands and try out their English on us.

No more pictures for today! After this demo we returned to our hotel, the Royal Park. We all enjoyed cold showers and changing into clean (dry) clothes for supper. I find that the hotel has Coke Light - a big treat since there are no diet sodas in Ghana. We have dinner at the Sanbara hotel, where we meet Jamey who has finally arrived.