Cedi Beads

 

February 20, 2022

Friday and Saturday we took a trip up north with our senior missionary friends to see how beads are made and the largest man-made lake  in the world.  Our first stop on Friday was in Krobo, two hours north of Accra, to see a guy named Cedi and his bead making company, Cedi Beads, and why they are so good at it.  He is well known in this part of the world. It is a family run business; the third generation.

The beads are made from recycled glass; beer bottles, coke bottles, milk of magnesia bottles, and many other bottles.  Each bottle has different characteristics and Cedi and his people know how to make various kinds of beads using these recycled products.  They understand the colors produced by what glass, and use special powders to produce other colors they want. By the way, he got his name "Cedi" because he was born at the time the Government of Ghana switched from using the British Pound to the Ghana Cedi.  The name has stuck.

The glass is crushed into small pieces, or ground into powder depending on the bead.  The glass in put into small molds and placed in a kiln at very high temperatures and removed before it turns to a liquid and still gummy.  The gummy product is worked by a craftsman who pokes a hole in it and turns the mixture around in the mold until it is round, turning it several times.  They do it so well with so much experience and the final products are something to be admired.   The beads are then washed in sand, by hand, until they are smooth and of the right shininess.  I have used very few words to describe the process used to make these things.  They make it look easy, and are craftsmen for sure.  

Cedi took us through the whole process, describing everything as he went, and as part of our visit we designed our own large bead using powdered glass, and five other beads using crushed glass.  Needless to say, my beads did not look as nice as those made by Cedi and his team, but I had fun doing it.  And I respect their craft.

Cedi knows how to run a business better than any other place we have visited in Ghana.  We scheduled the trip, they were ready for us, the grounds are clean and almost manicured, The buildings and structures are well built, they even have a good washroom, and we were taken through the manufacturing process and the small gift shop with confidence. Everyone enjoyed the place and our visit.

Deciding on the colors for our own beads.

Below is the picture of the group that went up, (from left to right, standing up) Porters, Dukes, Calls, Lewis', Munks, Linda Ann Adams, Elaine and me, Woodburys, Derrs, kneeling, and Cedi, then his brother, Kudjo.  Kudjo is a member of the Church.

It is good to break away from our assignments in the Area office and see more of this wonderful part of the world.  We left several copies of the book of Mormon for Kudjo to use.  There is a branch of the Church in Krobo.

Have a nice week.