(Please note that Kelly Landrey is no longer a designer for The Ndau Collection but has gone to travel Africa and the world!)
I've just come back from the factory and have some great sneak peeks of new product and Kelly at work. Hot off the polishing wheel is this incredible citrine and ndoro piece - covet, covet...
Kelly Landrey is the Ndau in house designer. Now based in Victoria Falls, she has lived and travelled all over Africa and the rest of the world. This cosmopolitan designer brings a dash of European style to all of her African pieces that makes them wearable even in New York and she is fast developing a cult following of clients who email from all corners of the world to see what she is up to next. Whilst never formally trained as a jeweller, Kelly is a natural. She finds inspiration in everything around her - be it a piece of driftwood or a crafter's work - and her fount of new ideas never seems to dry up. She constantly references antique African jewellery in her work, inspired by the traditional castings and fine beads used in old jewellery. Her passion for Trade Beads is shown clearly in the beautiful combinations she uses in conjunction with the sterling silver. One of my favourite things to do every day is go down to the studio to see what she's working on next, so here's some images of her workbench, design boards and work in progress by the other silversmiths.
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| Kelly hard at work |
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| Kelly's design board |
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| Ndau's treasure trove of antique trade beads, bone beads, stone beads, glass beads, wooden beads... |
Gail recently saw this fantastical wire baobab by local crafter Taurai and was inspired to give him some sterling silver wire and agate and bone pieces to work with and here's the results as Kelly knots and finishes each.
The silversmiths were all really busy too, with Ngoni and Alex preparing for a new silver casting, Toby polishing up the last cast and Joe finishing several new pieces.
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| Wax models ready to join into trees for setting in investment |
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| Ngoni working on wax models |
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| Alex polishing new copper castings |
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| New design organic shape copper pieces |
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| Joe delicately filing a pendant |
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| Joe's work bench |
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| Newly made beads being polished and filed |
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| Toby at his work station working on these beads |
Here's a look at what's on the table ready to go out to the Ammonite shop today.
The leather factory was awash with colour today as new croc skin bags came into being.
I hope you found this virtual visit as inspirational as I did the real one today!
1 comment:
Apologies for incorrectly claiming that Kelly had worked with Taurai when it was Gail - post has been ammended! You're all so creative, I get confused!!!!!
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