Beading Weekend: Day Two

Day two of our beading weekend was not quite what we imagined, since our teachers had a big, all day event at Church so couldn't instruct us. In the morning we went on a looooonnnng walk. I don't love walking under the hot sun but it was almost worth it because we saw a baby camel!

After the walk we came back to Mkuru training camp and decided to have a go at beading BY OURSELVES. 'Who needs teachers?', we thought. 'We already know everything there is to know about beading, because we learnt it yesterday!'

Many rude words we exchanged as we realised we did not, in fact, know everything there was to know about beading, and we missed our teachers desperately. But after an hour or so of swearing and sighing things sort of clicked into place and we each enjoyed some small degree of success. I made this pendant:

I had the idea of making some jewellery for the wedding, but I think I'd need to get a bit better at it before then! Nobody else wanted me to take photos of their inferior-to-yesterday results, but here are some pictures of what people made the previous day. Allison and Maja combined their mad skills to make this necklace-and-earring combo:

And Liz made these two pairs of earrings. (Almost all of us wanted to make earrings. They were the easiest).

Those of us on the beading weekend decided to meet up once a month for a beading and gossip lunch to expand on our skills and have fun.

Should you want to go on a beading weekend yourself you will need at least two participants (I don't think there is a maximum). For a two-day trip including food, accommodation, transport and activities we paid $90 per person. They also offer a three-day trip. You can contact Tanzania Maasai Women Art for more details.

I want to leave you with this final image: it's the view from the Kilimanjaro Toilet at Mkuru Lodge: the best view of any toilet in the world, owing to it's large, missing wall from which you can see Kili whilst seated early in the morning.