The Beading Studio

Learn the colourful craft of beadwork with the Maasai Mamas. Alongside the Safari Shop, you’ll find the Beading Studio, where this talented group of Maasai women creates beautiful beadwork, whether for jewellery or a dash of beads on clothing. It is a merriment of activity, laughter and song as hands bead busily away and the walls are decorated with traditional necklaces of different celebrations.

RETAIL THERAPY MEETS CREATIVITY

  • Sit with the Mamas while they work and sing songs, you can chat with them and try your hand at this intricate craft
  • Want to spruce up a favourite piece of clothing? The team can create a design for your sleeve, under your collar, or on a hat. They can also show you how they bead bespoke items like a leather bracelet or a belt
  • Ask one of the Mamas to make you a personalised name bracelet — children love these — or a unique Maasai-style necklace to celebrate a special occasion, from birthdays to weddings
  • Browse through their other work — the Maasai Mamas create Maasai-inspired designs for items such as placemats, lampshades and more, taking traditional beadwork and putting an Angama flare to it

Whatever you buy, your beautiful beaded jewellery purchase has an impact right here in the Mara. Traditionally, and until recently, Maasai women did not work, but this small women’s beading group shows what can be done. Not only do the Mamas now earn a livelihood and benefit financially from selling their crafts, they feel a sense of pride and belonging through creating beading communities and running businesses.

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About a Bead

14 October 2022 – Charlotte Ross Stewart

While I am constantly rushing to and fro when at the lodge, I always make time to sit with the Beading Mamas of Angama. I find it to be a time of quiet community; I love hearing them speak to each other and — if luck is on my side — singing. It was during…
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A Beading Safari

3 April 2018 – Adam Bannister

Gogo Elizabeth had never been inside the Maasai Mara National Reserve. She had lived her entire life on its outskirts, on the other side of the imaginary fence, but had never had the means to explore her own ‘backyard’. Her situation is by no means unique, as many of the women in the nearby areas…
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The Elegant Eight

18 December 2017 – Shannon Davis

Entering Angama Mara’s Safari Shop, your attention is immediately drawn to a table in the adjoining studio where beautifully adorned women, with heads bowed and fingers flying, concentrate as they work another tiny bead into a delicate design. On approach they all look up in unison and their lovely faces crack into the widest of…
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