The Haitian Bead Project2014 LOOKBOOK

Ever since I was a little girl, I loved the ocean. Something about the colors—the sand meeting turquoise, indigo, navy waves meeting mint green plants, sea glass and cobalt rocks—opened up a painter’s palette of poetry to me. I loved the crashing of the waves, the rhythm, the contrast of sea and sky and salty air.

This collection is inspired by the ocean—all the color and contrast it embodies. Across one ocean is an island shared by Haiti & the Dominican Republic...

Haiti is a land marked by contrast.Depleted resources in the city but rich soils in the mountains. Garbage lines some shores while white sand beaches and crystal waters mark another. A history of political strife but the only slave nation to win their freedom. Haiti is a country full of people rising from the chains of poverty and treasure emerging from the trash.

Beautiful things are being created from the dust.

Our Oceans Collection includes new products!

Waterfall Necklace

Coconut Shell Earrings

Cascade Necklace

Infinity Fringed Scarves

Butterfly Bracelet

On one shore, women like Moise are keeping their eyes above the waves in Haiti... She is learning new skills, saving money, dreaming of a better future for her family.

Moise was one of our original women sent to Port Au Prince for training in the art of crafting paper beads and jewelry-making. She was part of the core group of women who stepped out onto the water in Summer 2011 to learn a new skill and help us launch the Haitian Bead Project. Little by little Moise has gained respect, dignity as she has risen to a position of leadership in the project. She is a quick learner, has an eye for color and design, and has proved gifted at teaching women one-on-one.

Moise started with a dream to build a little home for her family. When the project started, her family rented two rooms on the third floor of an unfinished building. She struggled with fear for her children’s safety, wondered aloud how she might send them to a good school. With the ripples of sales, she managed to buy a bag of cement here, some wood there.

Today, Moise and her husband have managed to save enough to build their own two-bedroom home near the river. Her children, Moiscadjenny and Kalangie, share a bed. The children rise each morning, put on pressed uniforms, and Moise walks them to school. Moise has gained a sense of dignity, an understanding of hope on the horizon.

The ocean speaks...

power courage passion peace

On another shore live our faithful volunteers, the friends of our project.

They offer a hand up, not a handout to these Haitian women, mothers, grandmas, aunties, artisans.

Women like Cori volunteer their time to help design jewelry, order supplies. Though the busyness of Cori’s life in California ebbs and flows, she still carves out snatches of time to create and dream up new projects. From the time she was a little girl, Cori has created jewelry, sewed together fabric, cut glass and painted. Creativity is the thing that makes her feel most alive beyond her life as a working mother of two boys.

Cori uses her creative gifts, her heart for teaching to extend a hand across the ocean to our Haitian artisans. One day Cori crosses the ocean to meet Moise, to see the hands that make her creations come alive...

in each wave, each sunset on the horizon

Earrings

IHG

FED

CBA

A Anchored Loop B ClassicC CoconutD ClassicE HoopF Azure FringeG Sea Mist StackH TeardropI ClassicEarrings

Necklaces

DC

BA

A WaterfallB Coconut Medallion C Long Wrap D Single Strand E Cascade

E

Necklaces

A Coconut Shell Drop B Rolling Tide C Ribbon D Seaside Simplicity

D

BA

C

A Infinity Fringe ScarfB HeadbandC Infinity Fringe ScarfD Headband

D

BA

Headbands and Scarves

C

Bracelets

Right Page ItemsA Eyeglasses Leash B Fan Pull C Coconut Button C Napkin Ring C Lanyard C Key Chain

A Friendship B Classic C Butterfly D Spiral

C

BA

D

Right Page ItemsA Eyeglasses Leash B Fan Pull C Coconut Button C Napkin Ring C Lanyard C Key Chain

C

BA

Creative Uses

D

E

F

Christmas Decor

A Cross Ornament B Star Ornament C Mini Wreath Ornament

Dorina Gilmore, Director In the summer of 2011, I traveled to Haiti with my husband and daughters to begin work directing a non-profit in the growing town of Pignon. During a bumpy truck ride from the Port Au Prince airport to the northern mountains, our Haitian director Peter shared with me his vision of providing jobs for women in the community. He had a burden for the hungry, the hopeless, the children who needed education. He had chosen a few women and sent them for training with a jewelry company in Port-Au-Prince. He asked me if I would help him with this dream.

My heart leapt when I first heard about this. I never imagined that I would have the chance to use my passion for creativity and my love for making jewelry in Haiti. That summer I gathered our first group of artisans — nine women from Pignon who stepped up to learn how to roll their own beads from recycled cardboard. The first days were challenging. We had a language barrier between us, and I had to earn their trust. Through the months and years, these women have become my treasured friends and the core of our business. Through our project, the artisans gain new skills, an eye for creativity and fashion, an understanding of business principles and managing money, and a means for providing for their families.

Today, we have 60 artisans working in the cities of Pignon and Savanette. We believe a person gains dignity and purpose through his or her work. For decades, Haitians have been offered relief and handouts with crippling effects. There has been little plan for long-term development. We want to empower Haitians to provide for themselves and build their own communities rather than furthering a culture of dependency. Many of the artisans in our project have taken the money they have earned and used it for further education or even start their own small businesses.

Turning Trash into TreasureOur artisans take recycled cardboard – cereal boxes, snack boxes, discarded calendars, packaging and paper – then cut it into long strips that are hand-rolled into diff erent shaped beads. As they roll, the women apply glue to hold the beads together. The beads are dipped in a lead-free varnish and set to dry in the Haitian sun.

Women gather – grandmas, girls, mamas, aunties – to make the beads into jewelry. They combine the hand-rolled beads with seed beads or other products like leather, coconut shell, chain and metal to create beautiful, one-of-a kind jewelry.

Each product is a fashion statement because it tells a story.

The story of the artisan who made the piece and their picture is attached to each piece. These products stand in the face the mass-produced jewelry flooding today’s market. These women and men artfully fashion each piece with care. They are empowered by each purchase. They gain dignity, hope and courage to move forward against the odds of life in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

“Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.”

~Maya Angelou

Every purchase you make from The Haitian Bead Project helps give our artisans the courage to stand up, to cre-ate, to dream and to move on from the prison of poverty.

Every bead is handcrafted.

Become a part of the story.We believe in the power of story. We believe that off ering another human being a pen so they can write their own story is more powerful than writing their story for them. When friends share our story with their circle of influence – friends, family, coworkers they give our artisans a chance to rewrite the narrative so oft en forced on them because of the circumstances of poverty.

Everyone can be a storyteller.

There are a variety of ways you can join our story. We operate largely on the generosity of a volunteer work force.

Our volunteers help:» tag jewelry » off er business and marketing advice» package products » host jewelry parties or open houses» design new products » speak at conferences, missions events, fashion shows» visit local businesses with samples » share our story with a larger audience» sell at fairs, festivals, shows, boutiques, farmer’s markets

We host an annual Bead Project Dessert just so volunteers can get a sneak peek at our new products, learn the latest about our business and hear stories from others involved in the project

For more information on how to Join the Story, email info@haitianbeads.com.

Two countries, One heart.

www.HaitianBeads.org