From the ground up

From the ground up

Twice a year, Philip and Katy Leakey create designs for natural grass bead jewelry from their home office in the Kenyan bush, south of Nairobi.

In December, about 800 Maasai women harvest the reedy grass. It is cleaned and transported to the Leakeys' office.

Using box knives, the women painstakingly cut the hollow blades of grass into 1/8-inch-long beads. Most women will cut one cup of grass beads a day.

The beads are checked for quality, dyed with textile dyes, dried in the sun, and stored by color. Then they are combined into kits with lengths of elastic and Czech glass beads. It takes 200 beads to make one strand.

The kits are transported by motorbike to eight work stations around Kenya. The Maasai women assemble the necklaces, sitting on the ground under acacia trees.

The jewelry, known as the Leakey Collection, is shipped to 1,000 retail locations in more than 20 countries, including the US, Canada, Japan, and Europe. Retail outlets include California's Fred Segal boutique, a favorite destination of stars.

-- LINDA MATCHAN