Acholi Beads

Story Book

James A. Pearson — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:43:08 +0000

Open publication - Free publishing - More story

Lookbook

James A. Pearson — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:15:38 +0000

Open publication - Free publishing - More lookbook

Store of the Week! Urban Girl Accessories in San Diego

James A. Pearson — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:24:56 +0000

If you live in San Diego, or plan to visit San Diego soon, or need an excuse to visit San Diego soon, then here it is: Urban Girl. A wonderfully stylish and creatively curated boutique right in the heart of world-famous Seaport Village. Check out this look pulling together our favorites from Urban Girl’s offerings for a perfect picnic outfit. Click thru to check out more of Urban Girl’s amazing finds!

Thank You Ben Sasso

James A. Pearson — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:44:29 +0000

Last month the inimitable Ben Sasso gathered some gorgeous models in some of LA’s most beautiful settings and gave Ember Arts a stunning photo shoot for free. The results speak for themselves, and I speak for Ember when I say, Ben, Jenn, Lauren, Rachel, Tony and Matt, our deep, deep thanks for your work.

See more of his work here and here:

Ember + Hemline + TOMS = Weekend Wonder

James A. Pearson — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:26:26 +0000

Hemline is one of our favorite new stores, or rather, Hemline is a beautiful team of 10 stores, and we love them all. They have invested deeply in the story of our Ugandan partners and are a force for hope throughout the Southern USA. Today their website features a great summer look combing Ember jewelry with HEMLINE clothes and TOMS Shoes. It was created by our very own fashionista intern Laura. Check it out!

Lisa Dougan: Ember Hero

James A. Pearson — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 10:03:54 +0000

[Ember Hero: n - A woman who makes the world a more hopeful place. To show our appreciation we donate 50% of online sales to the charity of her choice for one month.]

Talking to Lisa Dougan you might not know what an important force for hope she is. She speaks with unswerving humility about herself, and would likely turn the conversation to you, your interests and your successes, rather than focus on her own.

In fact even her success tends to focus on other people, on building peace and opportunity for those who find them lacking. She has helped open hundreds of thousands of eyes to Africa’s longest running war, seeded a community that bridges socioeconomic divides, and was recently invited to the Oval Office to meet President Obama in recognition for her advocacy and lobbying for children in East and Central Africa.

She is, in short, an inspiration. And our first Ember Hero.

In appreciation of her contribution to hope in our world we are donating 50% of all proceeds from our online sales through the end of the month to Lisa’s chosen charity: the Young Life Columbia Heights Program, which is investing in the lives of Washington DC teenagers from rough backgrounds with faithful, caring mentorship. Ember’s contribution will specifically go to help 30 of these teens attend a summer camp with Young Life that offers them the chance to connect more deeply with caring mentors and experience a different perspective on life.

Shop online thru July 31, and 50% will go to Young Life Columbia Heights.

A couple months ago Lisa was invited to the Oval Office to shake hands with President Obama. The path that got her there started about four years ago when she saw a film called Invisible Children that highlighted the unthinkable hardships of children in a civil war in Uganda.

“My life was monopolized by a desire to advocate for the children of northern Uganda,” says Lisa, and soon she was road-tripping from Washington DC to San Diego to the join a growing non-profit movement sparked by the film. As a ‘roadie’ for Invisible Children she spent five months travelling the country, living out of a donated RV, and “sharing the story that had taken my life captive and calling on my peers to act.”

But Lisa didn’t stop there. She soon left on a fact-finding trip to Northern Uganda and then returned to San Diego to help manage the ongoing awareness and advocacy efforts of Invisible Children.

Even as she split her attention between her friends in Uganda and the roadies she managed across the US, Lisa did not neglect her interim hometown of San Diego. The small coastal community of Ocean Beach is known in part for the many homeless people who enjoy its nice weather and public spaces. One Sunday afternoon a friend of Lisa’s took some leftovers from a party to Ocean Beach and had a public BBQ, inviting anyone who happened to be around, many of whom lived on the streets.

Lisa saw that food was a great way to connect with people. She says, “After that first day, I made a personal commitment to return to that same spot every Sunday, with a meal to share. The food just provided an excuse to meet people. The real goal was to learn their name and their stories and to make plans to find them the following week. The point was relationship.”

Five or six people grew to ten, then twenty, then forty people meeting every Sunday for food and each other’s company. This small community was the catalyst for life change on both sides of the soci-economic spectrum. Says Lisa, “Through the relationships that were built between all of us and the community that formed, I had the incredible privilege of seeing people get off the streets, find the courage to pursue recovery from addictions, experience unconditional love for the first time, open up about pain and fear that paralyzed them. In turn, I have been loved, supported, educated and challenged by many of my friends living on the streets in Ocean Beach.”

At the end of last year Lisa moved back to Washington DC to dive deeper into political advocacy to bring an end to the ongoing conflict in Easter and Central Africa with Resolve Uganda. Together with other advocates she slept on the streets in front of a Senator’s office to get him to release a hold on the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, which aims to focus US attention on the conflict. And it worked. The bill passed and Lisa, together with a select few delegates, was invited to meet President Obama as he signed the bill into law.

It’s the most visible of Lisa’s accomplishments so far, but we don’t suspect that it will be her last, or greatest. We asked Lisa, “If the world could be different somehow because of you, what change would you choose?” Her answer was that people would see the richness and necessity of building deep bonds of relationship, that they would brave the inconveniences and sacrifices and pursue the adventure, healing, and transformation that relationship promises. This, Lisa seems to believe, can change the world.

[Join Lisa's mission to send 30 teens to Young Life summer camp here.]

Beautiful New Pieces, Beautiful New Photos

James A. Pearson — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:30:03 +0000

In order to highlight our incredible new pieces, we had to enlist someone with way more photographic talent than ourselves, so we shot for the moon and called up Sarah Shreves. She braved an all-day shoot on an unseasonably cool California day to capture stunning images of our beautiful models enjoying our jewelry. Here are some favorites:

Meet the Embterns (the ‘b’ is silent)

James A. Pearson — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 18:12:43 +0000

We are pumped to introduce to you our first ever summer intern class! These wonderful human beings have devoted their summer to helping us take Ember Arts to the next level. You can follow their journey at their brand new blog: http://emberinterns.tumblr.com

Laura Berry (bio by Joanna Oboza)
Laura Berry is a vegetable garden growing superstar in Haiti. Originally from Dallas, Texas, in her spare time she finds herself in Haiti, working to provide a sustainable food source for the impoverished people of Haiti by helping them grow vegetable gardens that are maintained through the compost of human solid and liquid waste. When not using her vegetable superpowers, she tries to live a normal life by going to Texas A&M working on a degree in Geography, Sociology, and Business. Trying to act like a normal college student as often as her non-normal but exciting life allows, she plays with her dog Bentley, watches a lot of hockey, crafts and sews, and enjoys spending time outdoors. If you happen to run into her somewhere in Dallas or Haiti, be sure to speak into her left ear because her right ear, unfortunately, will not pick up what you say. Hopefully one day when her life takes a more normal toll, she will be able to live on a sailboat (where she can read “Mountains Beyond Mountains”, a book that continues to change her life each time she reads it), help people tap into their creativity, and camp out at a Nascar Race. Although no super hero is ever able to live a normal life, Laura would never want to live a life other than hers because it allows her to continuously work on developing countries and projects. She has currently taken on a role as an intern at a company called Ember Arts where she hopes to learn about social entrepreneurship and its ability to truly empower women. As a child dreaming of being a weather girl, little did she know that she were to become a superhero with vegetable growing and waste composting super powers!

Joanna Oboza (bio by Sander Harth)
A unique Polish upbringing has catapulted Joanna Oboza into becoming the first Ember Intern who not only speaks a first language that is not English, but who can name over 50 different types of sausages. Despite being held back in Kindergarden for not knowing enough English, Joanna has overcome her language barrier and fear of eating the ends of bananas to establish herself as a fine young woman with a big heart and great aspirations. Besides being a psychology major at UCSD, she is involved with multiple well-known organizations, a few of which include Invisible Children and the Big Sister mentoring program. She has recently brought her passion for reading books and her dream to one day build a library in her own house to a more contemporary endeavor, tutoring refugees from Burma and Somalia in financial literacy. Joanna considers herself very fortunate to have the opportunity to intern at Ember this summer because she has a great passion for helping others in need, and by working at Ember she is going to experience how a business can both be profitable and play a major role in changing people’s lives for the better. While earthquakes are Joanna’s greatest fear, and the Ember office is located North Park (which is devastatingly close to the San Andreas Fault line), she has volunteered to risk her life in order to participate in what is most definitely going to be a life changing experience, not only for her, but for the 27 beautiful women in Uganda who work so hard to produce the Ember Arts jewelry we all adore.

Sander Harth (bio by Laura Berry)
Sander the Surfer Superhero is not only big in size but business savy. He had a natural knack for business and dreams of owning his own company. Sander’s business aspirations are not only aimed to help himself, but also to help others who are less fortunate. He has worked closely with an agricultural company, Guayaki, based out of Argentina and helped promote their projects at his school, University of San Diego. After taking a trip to Argentina and living with the indigenous Ache Guayaki Indians, he knew socially conscious business was a direction to aim. This superhero has linguistic power and is trilingual: English, Norwegian, and Spanish. These powers come in handy when you travel like sander. He’s studied in Spain and Mexico and has traveled all over the world ranging from New Zealand, Africa, Panama, Paraguay, Europe, and his favorite Costa Rica. Originally from Encinitas, CA, Sander can not imagine living anywhere but the San Diego area. He’s finishing his last year at USD where he is studying Finance, Accounting, and Spanish. In his free time you can find him surfing, hiking, playing volleyball, cooking, going to concerts, exploring, kayaking, or watching sports. In the future, Sander hopes to have started a family and own his own business.

The Unquenchable Ember of the Human Spirit

James A. Pearson — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:00:44 +0000

Today we at Acholi Beads are launching a new vision, and we are rebranding our entire company to match it. We call it Ember Arts.

Ember is the new face of our company, the new name by which we call ourselves. It is founded on something we learned from the Ugandan women we partner with.

Every human being is born bright with a natural flame of creativity and exuberance, the flame that inspires children in their ceaseless joyful exploration of the world. But as the years pass, some fires dim. Heartbreaks, failures and injustices douse our dreams and quench our wonder.

For our Ugandan partners it was worse. Their lives were battered by civil war, they lost loved ones to violence and hunger, and they struggled through years of hard labor trying to feed their families. After too long without the resources to pursue their goals and dreams, people stop hoping.

This is the great tragedy of poverty, that eventually even the flame of hope dies.

But that was not the end of their story. Through our partnership together they found new opportunity, and soon they began pursuing goals and dreams that had been unimaginable only months before - sending kids to university, building houses, creating new businesses.

All the flames of creativity and exuberance burst back to life.

Hope, we learned, is never gone. Even when it looks like those flames are snuffed out, there is an ember, a smoldering little seed of hope that can never be extinguished.

This is the unquenchable ember of the human spirit. We exist to kindle it into flame.

Today is the beginning of a new vision of elegance and impact, a synthesis of market and morals that will change attitudes in America and lives in Uganda, and eventually around the world. We are developing the most marketable products ever to come out of impoverished communities so that soon those communities will overthrow poverty.

We are so very grateful to all who support us. We certainly can not do it without you.

Let’s make flames.

Bringing Sunlight into the Night

James A. Pearson — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 22:03:34 +0000

Just happened across this invention over on Engadget (my personal favorite gadget blog). It’s a solar powered lightbulb for use in the developing world. Hang it outside during the day to charge, bring it inside at night to enjoy some daylight leftovers. We’ve been to some Ugandan villages that would likely love this. Apparently they’ll run about $6 when purchased in bulk - not bad for two years of light

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