Last year when the Central Bank announced it was phasing out cents, jeweller Angela Went was delighted.
She waited patiently for the day to come as she had thought of an interesting way to use them to showcase Barbados’ history through her heritage line.
The owner and designer of Angelique’s Jewellery tells the story of the island, its people, and traditions in a unique way in bracelets, earrings, necklaces, and rings and the coins were a perfect addition.
“I don’t remember when it came to me but the market for jewellery in Barbados was quite saturated. We have persons making jewellery and persons bringing in foreign stuff. I wanted to find a niche and I also wanted jewellery that told a story; that gave the Barbadian identity using the Barbadian vernacular and I wanted to use our images so that when people see our jewellery, just like when you see our food and hear our music, you know it’s Barbadian,” she said.
“I wanted something distinctive that when you see this jewellery you’ll know it’s Barbadian. The response is pretty good, actually my target market is the Barbadian diaspora and people buy my jewellery to send overseas to their families and friends,” Went said during an interview at her Sky Mall kiosk.
She told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY that earlier that day she made cent bracelets for tourist Kim Riddle who was getting married. The bride came by her shop at Pelican Craft Centre to place the order and during the interview she collected the pieces which were gifts for her bridsemaids.
“I like to make different things, I don’t like to make the same thing over and over. I would make one thing today and then tweak it and make something else and that would evolve into something else,” she added.
Went started making jewellery back in 1998 just for fun. The part time venture was the continuation of a childhood hobby but as time passed she became more passionate about art and craft than she was about her job so eight years later she decided to get into it full time.
As she said, “it is better to do something you’re passionate about as you’ll have less stress”.
Given the response to the heritage pieces, she will continue with it because she wants her jewellery to have identity.
“I use one cent but I also use the Barbados blackbelly sheep leather when I can get it…it’s not readily available…I prefer to use it because it’s softer and indigenous and I like to work with it. I use anything Barbadian that I could find. I like using metal. I like to recycle things,” the businesswoman added.
She prefers to work with cents from the 1980s which are solid copper and not those after that decade because the material used with the latter years is foter. She cleans them and drills holes to link them. When completed, she coats them with wax unless there is a request not to.
Wanting to enhance her skills and techniques as a jeweller led her to the Revere Academy in San Francisco back in 2007 and she has also participated in courses offered by the Barbados Investment and Development Corporation.
There was one course in particular that helped her with the identity of her jewellery. She said it “helped to inspire me” as well as aid in the systematic way she approached her product line and moved from one stage to the next.
“My business is not where I want it to be yet. I’m always learning new things and now, becasue the economy is so slow, it’s more of an impulse product. It has been challenging and the peak is usually at Christmas. I am targetting the diaspora and my thing is to look to export my jewellery to those pesons,” she said.
“I’ve been using Facebook a lot. I’ve entered NIFCA a lot and the Caribbean Gift and Craft Show. Last year at NIFCA I won the Barbados Manufacturers’ Association’s Brand Award with stuff using blackbelly sheep leather, and mahogany. When I enter NIFCA I always try to do things that will get gold awards but I also want people to see what they can do, show our identity and tell the Barbadian story through the jewellery,” she said.
For example, she has a mirror image bracelet, featuring the words and other things related to National Hero and father of Independence Errol Barrow. She believes that through her jewellery she will continue to craft her fate and preserve Barbados’ heritage.
(Green Bananas Media)
