Jewelry Makers

Every Apparent Project Artisan is unique, with their own amazing story, but they all share this in common- they come from extreme poverty. They each carry the hope that this little job of rolling paper beads and making necklaces will help them put food on the table from week to week and maybe allow them to save enough to rent a house. Most of our artisans are currently living in post-earthquake tent cities. Many of them hope to send their children to school to give them a shot at breaking the cycle of poverty.

Our artisans use almost any kind of paper: magazines, scrapbook paper, cereal boxes, or other kinds of packaging material. These are cut into thin strips using guillotine paper cutters.  The artisan then carefully rolls the beads on bamboo skewers and then coats the rolled bead with a waterproof coating that serves to protect the bead. After the beads have dried, the artisan will mix the paper beads with seed beads, glass beads, and other native beads to make beautiful and unique necklaces, bracelets and earrings for sale.

Jewelry Parties are the primary way that we market Apparent Jewelry. At a jewelry party people like you open their home, church, or business to sell jewelry on the behalf of our artisans and their families. We love that these parties give people around the world an easy way to spread awareness about Haiti's needs and help the poor beyond the limit of their own resources. Hosting a social event in your home can change the lives of the poor! How cool is that?

On average it takes an artisan about three months of jewelry making before they start to earn a livable wage on their sales. These three months are often difficult, as they have no income with which to feed their families.  While we feed the artisans each day that they work, we are also pursuing means to make their income more steady and immediate. When retail stores carry our jewelry, we are able to pay artisans for their jewelry up front when a store places its order. We are also able to select jewelry from artisans in greater need when we are filling these bulk orders. If you would like to sell our jewelry in your store, please contact us right away!