She was a baby-faced 20-year-old when she arrived in the country in the company of a Ghanaian student she had met and fallen in love with in her home country of Hungary but Kati Torda soon after fell for some little, beautiful, colourful objects at a market at Akwatia in the Eastern Region of  Ghana and that other love affair has grown and grown and sustained till now.

The little objects that caught her fancy at the Akwatia market were locally-made beads and she has over the years designed exquisite jewelry with beads that have become sought-after objects around the world.
Besides being items of fashion, beads play important roles in traditional Ghanaian society and wearing them is regarded as a way of communication. By wearing beads, depending on the occasion and type, one is able to express emotions like joy, sadness or melancholy. Beads may also show one’s wealth, family or social status.

A bead is generally anything that can be pierced and threaded. They are usually made from natural substances such as bone, rock and coconut shell, or from objects like glass and metal. A clever, creative designer can blend the different shapes, sizes and colours into charming ornaments and that is what Kati Torda does on regular basis.

Internationally-famous personalities have visited and bought jewelry made with beads  from Kati’s shop at Asylum Down in Accra. She also makes modest exports of her jewelry to the United States, Denmark, Hungary and  Germany and has been providing accessories for almost all the major beauty pageants and fashion shows in Ghana.

Samples of her unique handiwork are on display in prestigious museums in America and Europe. What Kati finds particularly gratifying is the increased awareness and patronage of beads in Ghana as contemporary fashion objects by what she describes as ‘the new growing generation.’

 “Beads are now not looked mean upon like in the mid-1980s when I held my first exhibitions  in Accra.  They were regarded as old-fashioned stuff and most of the people who came to see what were on offer were grandmothers. Attitudes have changed  and young people are now not shy to wear beads in a modern context. That means with a hook and mixing them with other materials such as seashells and metal.”

Kati, came to Ghana in August 1979 with virtually no English word in her vocabulary. She first settled at Akwatia with her Ghanaian husband.

“Since I was limited by my inability to speak fluent English, I turned to handicrafts in order to communicate with my environment and my neighbours. I bought my first beads considering the size of the holes in them, colour, price and the attitude of the friendly traders which aroused my curiosity.”

The uniqueness and subtlety of Kati’s designs have since been arousing the curiosity of beads lovers, fashion designers and event organisers around Ghana since 1985 when Kati held her first exhibition at The Loom gallery in Accra. Though Kati is about the best-known jewelry designer working with beads in Ghana, she does not want to solely take the credit for how popular wearing of beads has becopme these days.

 “There is always a  natural turning around of fashion. What goes out comes around again and there’s a revival of ethnic jewelery in the world. I believe the 15-year old Ghana Beads Society (GBS) has had a big role to play in creating consciousness about beads and their values in Ghanaian culture.”

She also acknowledges top-notch fashion designer, Kofi Ansah, for paving the way for other designers to take to beads. Kati worked with Kofi on his first show in Ghana when he relocated from London in the early 1990s and says there has been a very cordial relationship between them since then.

“There has been no stopping for us ever since because he always encourages the use of beads. I believe he has paved the way for other designers to adopt local jewelry. Joyce Ababio, who has set up her own fasion school, is also lovely. Even her students are encouraged to accessorise with beads. They come for my jewelry when they have photo shoots.”

A lot of females also come to Kati’s shop for waist beads. The old method of stringing beads, tying them on the waste, cutting off the end of the thread with a blade and only taking the beads off when one wants to get rid of  them, in Kati’s view, are gone for good.

“Now you put a hook so you can wear them in the morning and take them off  in the evening if you want to. We are selling so much waist beads these days.  We fit them, with a lot of  giggles anyway, and the wearers can change them according to their mood or occasion.”

Though she has been the main supplier of accessories for pageants and fashion shows for several years, Kati says she is not surprised that younger jewelry designers are not springing up to take over from her.
“I’m ready for a challenger,” she says with laughter but with a hint of seriousness. “Jewelry making is part of the curriculun in the polytechnics but it is only a minor subject for those specialising in fashion design.

“It is easy to collect beads and string them but raising beads jewelry to a business level requires some money,  perseverance and continued  interest. The young people often do not have these things.”
Kati and a few friends have set up an organization on arts and crafts education to create a curriculum out of the knowlege she has accumulated over the years. The aim is primarily to give bead history and technology a higher status in the educational system.

“There’s great hope that the bead industry has the potential to grow,” She says with optimism.