Something is happening in Trelawney recently. THE HEART Trust/NTA's Falmouth Vocational Training Centre (VTC) is equipping residents with skills to become entrepreneurs and to serve Trelawney’s burgeoning tourism industry, recently offering a training program in the old and beautiful art of glass bead making.
About 18 persons from various communities in the parish recently finished a three-week course conducted by international expert, Professor Kudjo Owusu from Ghana, who has practiced the art for some two decades. Professor Owusu, who owns the Kudjo Glass Beads Industry in Ghana, said he learnt the craft as a young child, since he comes from a family of glass bead makers. He said that he has done advanced studies in the craft and has conducted training programs all over the world.
Then how glass beads are made? Recycled glass bottles were crushed into fine powder, and the material used to create beads, mainly for jewelry. Participants were also taught how to make the clay moulds and kilns, which are necessities in the bead-making process. Participants in the glass bead-making course at the HEART Trust/NTA's Vocational Training Centre in Falmouth fill clay moulds with powdered glass to be placed in the kiln for the heating process.
The hope of the program offered by VTC is that persons trained in the skill will start small businesses or boost existing ventures, by producing craft items that are unique and sustainable. As the Centre manager for the Falmouth VTC, Shorna Newsome-Myrie, said bead craft was just one module of a full program that the VTC is offering as it looks to expand training in art and craft.
(Here are some glass beads pictures offered by Daning Jewelry, for more information please click here )
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