Ashnorr Beads ? It?s a Bead Affair! Born into a very creative background, Nana Aba Gilbert-Arthur?s journey to fashion and designing was wonderfully inevitable. With a professional French Teacher for a mother, and a father with a background in designing, ?Fashion catalogues, coloured fabrics and oil paints were readily accessible in my home.? ? A precursor being lessons in sewing from her mother.
Her first steps in the fashion industry started with her father?s publicity company and on certain fashion display assignments for GTP and Woodin. She says of her focus on jewellery, ?I learnt jewellery making from online jewellery websites. Without excellent reading and understanding skills I couldn?t have done that.?
Ashnorr was born in May 2011, a word derived from ?Ashinor? meaning, ?beads? in the Ga language. Inspired by the colours and motifs in African prints, her focus is mainly handmade bead fashion jewellery.
She describes most informatively of her designs, ?Ashnorr is a Ghanaian based handcrafted jewellery brand that is refreshing, timeless and made up of restful classics, dramatic and vibrant colours in elegant styles. Ashnorr trends include:
? Several strands of beads used to create patterns and point of interest that much resembles clusters of fruits.
? The use of warm accents to give dark or dull beads a brighter overall look.
? Ashnorr is styled to complement traditional and western styled outfits.?
She designs for ?the one who loves unique handmade jewellery, which is refreshing, elegant and classic with an African feel.? There is nothing like an African feel!
Her work boasts of excellent colour coordination, and her magic wand of fingers, makes the ordinary look glamorous.
She specializes in the use of traditional Ghanaian powder glass beads, ceramic and wooden beads and western glass and acrylic beads.
However, as expected, making a career of designing is not exactly the smoothest road.
She describes her biggest challenges as; raising capital to buy materials on a regular basis, high cost of renting a shop and, also, competition from cheap Chinese imports and store reject jewellery from U.K and the U.S.
It is not all about designing and creating fantastic jewellery pieces for Nana Aba. She is also a fashion blogger, offering freelance fashion PR writing services.
Her blog, The Fashion Publicist, provides a very interesting read about fashion trends in Ghana that fascinate her.
Some of her popular posts include, ?Hardly no gowns at the Ghana Movie Awards? and ?It?s a Girly Concert.? Her language is quite refreshing in its simplicity and quite bold in its views and misgivings. Do not hesitate to take down a few fashion tips!
She says of who most influences her style, ?Michelle Obama. I love the way she uses jewellery to complement her special occasion looks.?
And what does the horizon look like for Ashnorr Beads? ?Ashnorr?s ultimate goal is to manufacture its own exclusive beads to use in its designs and organize bead training programmes.?
Ashnorr Beads would be showcasing her latest designs at Citi FM?s Expressions of Accra ? Threads of Time. Come check out her newest on Saturday 27th October 2012.
Source : Nana Korantema/citifmonline.com
