Want to design your own eco-jewelry — without doing the actual work of making the jewelry? Browse The Leakey Collection to find pretty jewelry strands that you can twist and combine to make a choker, long necklace, bracelet or whatever else your imagination can conjure up and create.

 

Sold at upscale boutiques and Origins stores, The Leakey Collection brings eco-fashion to fair trade jewelry. The company’s Zulugrass jewelry is made of hollow grasses local to the Maasai’s region in Kenya, which are cut, dyed, and strung together with Czech glass to create pretty strands in lots of different colors.

 

You can buy pre-styled multi-strand necklaces in a bunch of different styles — or single long strands at $12.95 each — which can be twisted on their own or combined with a sterling-silver necklace or bracelet clasp for even more variety. Find Zulugrass jewelry via the store locator, or by browsing the online store.

Careful, though, not to go overboard with these. Combine too many colored strands and you’ll go from chic to crunchy pretty fast. And while I do like the necklaces and bracelets for the most part, the earrings look rather busy and crunchy to me due to all the uneven loops. Maybe that’s just me though….

 

The Leakey Collection was founded by Philip Leakey, former parliament member in Kenya, and his wife Katy Leakey, a California artist, with a fair trade and humanitarian mission: To allow Maasai women a way to earn a sustainable living while the men, due to drought, had left to find grazing grounds for their cattle.

 

 

The company — which is a member of the Fair Trade Federation, employs more than 1400 rural Kenyan families now — and has also expanded its jewelry line to include Zulubeads made of fallen acacia wood!

 

Images: Courtesy The Leakey Collection