21 Sep helloOow handmade – clay beaded designs with love
HelloOow Handmade is a wonderful creative company based out of Nottingham Road which makes beautiful clay products by people with beautiful hearts. Merewyn, the creative genius behind HelloOow Handmade, loves to make gorgeous things which are hand crafted with love and made by ladies from the community who have genuine talent.
They make stunning handmade ceramic products and are all about empowering and equipping local women from the community. They use local craft heritage and trends from around the world to create uniquely African products.
The ladies hand make all of their products including chandeliers, jewellery, homeware, ceramics and stationery. HelloOow Handmade are very proud to be African and they love to incorporate African inspirations from culture, crafts and materials into their original designs. Combining ceramics, knitting, crochet, felt and shwe-shwe fabrics into their creative process.
Their biggest sellers are their stunning clay beaded chandeliers, these are a sight to behold and make a rather impressive centerpiece for any large room in the home, office or hotel space. Not only are they extraordinary to look at but the whole process of making the chandeliers is rather original and quite special.
The creative process starts with a hand drawn design by Merewyn, the owner, a local ironmonger creates the frame and then the women make the beads. The ladies hand-roll each bead from raw clay, they are then sun-dried, go into a kiln to fire and then finally dip-dyed by hand. Every chandelier takes between 7000 and 15 000 beads to create.The final step of the process is that each bead is intricately hand strung onto a wire frame. Quite the laborious process as a whole but creates a large number of much needed jobs for the community.
Many of the women who they employ have been affected by HIV and the effects of the business on the local community is wonderful to see. In 2012, 8 ladies were permanently employed. Now they have over 65 dedicated women rolling beads and creating their own works of art. They are always looking to expand and create new products and are now looking at launching a new furniture range, so do watch this space..
HelloOow Handmade have done phenomenally well overseas and can export and deliver their products to anywhere in the world. Pop into their shop which is located opposite the Junction Center in Nottingham Road. They have loads of beautiful items to decorate your home or to give as gifts.