Wameraki Brass Jewellery company – Kenya’s young entrepreneurs
By: Sere Neema
Posted on Monday, August 19, 2019
This episode of Full Circle with Joyce Omondi serves us some classy sassy jewellery to pair our everyday outfits with. The good aspect of it all? It is a young lady entrepreneur who does it all by herself. Talk of boss moves.
Wameraki Jewellry
Fridah Kawena is a jewellery designer and painter whose story is quite intriguing. She is the true definition of finding one’s purpose in life. After completion of her studies in Financial Economics, she sought to venture into her creative side.
She started Wameraki jewelry business in campus, making jewelry for her own use. Friends and family upon seeing her pieces, wanted to purchase them. Fridah makes all her pieces from their house garage. They range from 350 to 1,500 shillings each taking 2 hours to 2 days to make.
Her jewellery consists of bracelets, necklaces, bangles, lapels, earrings and custom made jewellery depending on the customer’s preference.
How does she do it?
Starting a business is not a walk in the park especially when resources are scarce. Kawena has had to source some of the raw materials from abroad to get the business running. She also has one employee to assist her as the process involves a lot of chemicals.
“It has been hand tools and some machinery I’ve had to import but most things have been available locally. We use pure brass metal, ankara... a lot of bead work and some bones and horns involved.”
Worried about the brass metal fading? Kawena gives homemade remedies to polish up the jewellery in case this happens.
Her products are available online for purchasing. Simply search WaMeraki on social media platforms to have yourself exquisite pieces.
