“In a country where only men are encouraged, one must be one’s own inspiration.”Tegla Loroupe, Kenya, 1994 New York City Marathon champion

CUSTOMERS OF THE LEAKEY COLLECTION
Guest Blogger: Susan Helm
Director of Marketing
Department of Surgery
Southern Illinois University School of Medicine

I recently directed the 30th Annual Women’s Distance Festival 2-mile race and children’s fun run in Springfield, Illinois on July 11, 2009 which attracted more than 600 runners and walkers and 200 children. You can find out all about the race at www.womensdistance.com.  The message behind our race is raising self-esteem among women, never a bad thing.  Each year I try to make sure the event has a woman’s touch, like flowers in the bathrooms, fun foods like cupcakes and fruit kabobs and unique awards vs. boring trophies or medals.  Last year I started the idea of giving away jewelry for prizes, and this year was my best effort yet!

I came across Zulugrass jewelry and a wonderful company representative named Jan Syvertsen from The Leakey Collection.  She was extremely helpful in guiding me with my selections, including the new Zulusport Bracelets for the younger set.  She even took the time to organize the prizes, and the warehouse staff bagged everything and labeled the jewelry, according to age categories, which was another big help.  My award recipients were in awe of the beauty of their awards and the story behind it. In fact, one of our winners already had on some Zulugrass jewelry which she claims she wears all the

time when she runs. We love the fact that an all women’s race makes a connection back to Kenyan women through its awards. Kudos to you and your company and your great customer service!

 We at The Leakey Collection commend all the sponsors of this event for positively impacting the lives of girls and women in America, just as our goal is to influence the lives of the girls and women in Kenya.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT HOW THE LEAKEY COLLECTION CAN HELP MAKE YOUR EVENT EVEN MORE MEMORABLE, CONTACT US AT sales@leakeycollection.com.

GUEST BLOG:  Sales Consultant Laird Almy

AN ONGOING SERIES FEATURING THE FACES OF THE LEAKEY COLLECTION

These blades of colorful grass are very special to me.  I was introduced to them in a way that I will never forget.

There are a few friends that come into your life that you try to hold on to.  I am lucky to have one of those friends.  We met at age four growing up in Connecticut.  We shared our lives together in school, riding bikes to each other’s homes, enjoying beach time growing up on Long Island Sound, and the pleasures and the pains of high school together.  We went to college in opposite directions but always found a way to stay in touch by phone and shared our lives through all its ups and downs

A move took me to Atlanta after college, and our lives got hectic as we both married and started families. Sadly, our busy lives got the best of us, and we lost touch.  In a time of email and cell phones, it should be easier to stay close to friends, but somehow it often seems harder. My friend and I had not spoken in many months.

In the spring of 2006, my husband and I were vacationing in Florida for spring break with our seven year old twins. Although the area provides over 20 different beaches, we chose to spend the day at our favorite beach.  It was a longer drive but well worth it in our minds.  This specific stretch of beach is very remote. After parking, a trolley takes you out to the beach over a mile of bridges made of recycled milk cartons traveling over acres of mangrove trees.   It is a well-kept secret. When you come up over the dunes, the azure color of the Gulf of Mexico blinds you with its beauty.

We picked our spot and unpacked for our long lazy day at the beach.  As I sat looking at the beautiful scenery, a sweet young girl caught my eye walking down the beach, reminding me of my Connecticut friend and all the beach days we had shared together growing up. As I looked closer, I examined the family that walked with this young girl.  It was my friend and her family! They had flown to Florida for a vacation, and they had chosen the exact same beach, on the exact same day.  We laughed and hugged until we cried at the coincidence that had occurred.  She and her family set up for the day with us.  We walked, laughed and explored while our children played just as we did growing up at the beach.

This was the day I received my first strand of Zulugrass, Tangerine. It was removed from her wrist and placed on mine.  I still have that special Zulugrass today.  As we walked along the beautiful stretch of beach, she filled me on the new direction her life had taken working with The Leakey Collection. She told me about the beautiful Maasai, Katy and Philip, and the gift of opportunity.  It was a day I will never forget.

I fell in love with the story of the Maasai, The Leakey’s and the gift of opportunity.  Eventually, I was able to work for the company sharing the story myself and traveling with my friend to trade shows.  Zulugrass built our friendship back stronger than ever before. We hope to make a trip together to Kenya in the years ahead.

We always laugh about the “blades of grass” that brought us back together.  Every time I share the beautiful story of this colorful jewelry, I can’t help but think of the Maasai on the other side of our earth. Somehow, they don’t seem so far away from Georgia world.  I hope one day to meet them and to thank them in person. Every time I enjoy wearing Zulugrass, I am reminded of how the Maasai have given me a gift forever, a lasting friendship.

The Leakey Collection celebrates friendship in the same way Laird and her friend do!  In honor of that, we’re proud to offer Friendship Bracelets! Two IDENTICAL ZuluSport Bracelets (7″) are connected with a raffia tie on our special new hangtags. Friends should cut the raffia together, each make a wish, and show their commitment to friendship, as well as to women across the globe!

For a limited time only, we are offering Friendship Bracelets in 3 lovely colors online to you and your friend. Check out our selection at www.leakeycollection.com

We just sent off our new Acacia Hardwood salad bowls and some other gorgeous new table top wood pieces for our trade shows in the USA.  You won’t believe the beauty of the grain, the soft rich color of the wood and the luster of the polish that the tung oil brings to this magnificent wood.  Philip has made the lathe, just as he made our “bush” kilns for our porcelain, and the tools with which to turn the wood.  Loving a challenge, he rose to the occasion by learning all he could over the past year about lathes, tools and turning wood and has now succeeded in bringing to life the most amazing works of art.

 Our FALLEN HARDWOOD Acacia is so hard that you can’t cut it with a chain saw!  The larger pieces are also rare, very difficult to find, and the processing of these large logs is extremely time-consuming.  As you can see in our YouTube video at http://www.youtube.com/user/LeakeyLife, what an arduous procedure it is to cut them!  They are then hand-turned, not computer-turned, into a variety of stunning salad bowls and tongs, platters and trays.  The items are created from a solid piece of wood so they have the heft of a quality accessory that will hold its value. They are then polished with tung oil, a naturally hardening and food-safe oil, that just brings out the exquisite and exotic grain.

We will be offering a variety of Acacia Tabletop Accessories that will be available for the 2009 Holiday Season! Due to the complexity of creating these unique accessories, contact sales@leakeycollection.com for more information about how to place your order NOW for these must-have pieces!

 GUEST BLOGGER: Kristan Fazio, Sales, Marketing and PR

Pablo Picasso once said, “The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place; from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.” I’m not sure he had TRASH in mind, yet 38 artists in San Diego, California recently did.

This summer, the City of Encinitas sponsored a juried Environmental Art Exhibition, an initiative of the City of Encinitas Commission for the Arts Civic Art Program. San Diego artists were invited to submit work that met the criteria of environmental art: 2- or 3-dimensional pieces, as well as functional items that fall into the realm of industrial design or wearable art, that were composed of at least 85% material(s) that would otherwise have been disposed of in waste streams.

There were some amazing pieces of creativity and expression. One standout was the large mermaid, shown above, made entirely of trash gathered on a local beach! One artist used old blue jeans as her canvas, and yet another crafted a jacket and hat using bottle caps. The Environmental Art Exhibition continues through 7/16/09 at the Encinitas Library, and I would highly recommend a visit if you live in San Diego.

Our own customer service representative, Chrystal Corcoran, also had a piece selected to exhibit, and The Leakey Collection is extremely proud of her! Shown here, she has created an organizer for papers, DVD’s or CD’s using old dominoes and scrap wood. It was certainly my favorite piece and definitely the most the functional!

The Leakey Collection’s dedication to making sustainable products, as well as Philip Leakey’s passion for “making something out of nothing,” motivated Chrystal to form her own small cottage industry, Let Nothing Be Wasted. Using the theme “Reuse, Repurpose, Recreate Using Life’s Leftovers,” she takes discarded items and turns them into unique and beautiful pieces. Instead of going into landfills, she is using items to decorate homes in a very fashionable way!

The Leakey Collection applauds the efforts of these artists to look at everyday objects with different eyes, just as our owners, Katy and Philip, transformed a piece of grass into contemporary, elegant jewelry they named Zulugrass!

So many of you have been asking about the women and if the downturn in the economy has affected them in any way.  The downturn slowed our business so the work opportunity was reduced.  This alone was difficult but coupled with the terrible ongoing DROUGHT in Kenya, times have been the toughest in years for the women.  Because the cattle are so thin, they aren’t worth selling, so many rural families without other sources of income have few ways of raising the money necessary to feed their families and educate their children.  It has become more important than ever to create work where ever and how ever we can.  To meet that need, we have created two new lines of Zulugrass - ZuluSport and Friendship Bracelets - a new line of Fallen Acacia Hardwood table top products, and our first in a line of skin care products, TLC Marula Oil.  We’re excited about these new products and will have more information to follow about them later. 

All the Maasai women are optimistic and eager for the economic upturn and for the drought to end, the latter not expected until November this year.  I have seldom met and had the privilege to know such buoyant, confident people.  The women still sing at the work sites, the young toddlers still play with their friends, and the jewelry is still being assembled by groups of women who love what they do! They are ever grateful for this work opportunity and give thanks every day that it may continue so that they can plan for their family’s future.  The entire team at The Leakey Collection is grateful, as always, that YOU are partners with us in providing this work opportunity to such an inspiring group of people such as the Maasai!