Try a SKU like LANB12557, a colour story like “Coastal”, or a product like “hoop earrings”.
Our story
Why we bead
Women in rural communities learn to bead with us and earn a steady income from skilled work, close to home.
Our founders
Founder
Erika has spent more than 25 years in beadwork.
She founded Kioni to create real work for women in South Africa’s rural communities.
Many of those women couldn’t travel to formal jobs, so Erika brought the work to them. She trains artisans, pays a fair income and helps them build a living from their craft.
Decades on, she still runs Kioni around that idea: skilled, paid work for women and their families.
Connect with Erika↗
Partner & site manager
Rita has worked alongside Erika for more than 20 years.
She started with no formal training on a rural game farm in South Africa and learned the craft bead by bead. She took master beading courses and went from beginner to expert, as a beader and as a teacher.
Rita speaks five languages, so she can teach women across different communities. She has trained and mentored hundreds of them, with patience and humour.
Today, as partner and site manager, Rita leads the team that makes each Kioni piece.
Design tester
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Our artisans earn a living from your orders.
