Society & Culture

CONTENTS Fighting poverty one click at a time 66 Banker to the Poor 67 Last Word on Management 68

This boo k gro from bein ws biograph g a y of one visionary leader to a lesson of passiona t e leadersh ip.

BOOK RE

VIEW

LIFE TRAVEL RESTAURANT REVIEWS FILM & THEATRE ART MUSIC BOOK REVIEW
Jewellery designer nds inspiration in the waters o the coast of Watamu
BY AAMERA JIWAJI

POT OF GOLD

ristina Sundby walked into the room dressed in a white shirt and a pair of blue jeans, with the cus on her shirt casually folded up. It was only after she sat down that I noticed the enormous diamond ring on her right hand and a white pearl ring on her left. On anyone else, it would have looked garish and ostentatious but on Kristina, the sparkling rings perfectly rounded o the elegant look. The same quality permeates her jewellery pieces, some of which she spread out on the table in front of her: simple lines with opulent stones in all colours, cuts and categories. Black, brown and white diamonds; yellow and white sapphires; deep red and light pink rubies and spinels, green emeralds, tsavorites and peridots; blue tanzanites, purple and blue amethysts and iolites, mandarin garnets, and tourmalines in all shades of the rainbow. I love colours, Kristina admits with a smile, the display in front of her having already told the story. Its the whole spectre together that makes the jewellery and so I like ke to mix semi-precious stones with precious stones and diamonds. Designing jewellery was the fullment of a childhood dream for Kristina. Growing up in Norway, she would doodle in pencil, drawing purely from inspiration. Her rst design was a diamond ring, and the interest from those who saw her wearing it catapulted her into developing a small business with select designs.
| Nairobi Business Monthly October

s d n o m a i d Ofand pearls
Kristina Sundby

Society & Culture

I love colours, Kristina admits with a smile, the display in front of her having already told the story. Its the whole spectre together oge that makes the jewellery and so I like to mix semi-precious stones with precious stones and diamonds. semi-prec
Kristina enjoys playing with colours and natural designs when she develops her jewellery.

Kristina draws on nature for her creativity, whether it is the shape of a ower, an animal or the movement of water. Her most recent pieces for instance a plump octopus bracelet with its tentacles seductively curling around the wrist or earring drops patterned with sapphires and white diamonds are inspired by the Indian Ocean o the coast of Watamu, where she now lives with her Italian husband, Remo., owner of Crystal Bay Resort. The secret to jewellery design, she condes, is improving upon an already existent design. Jewellery is about seeing models. You change a little bit and you make your own model. It can be similar but its not 100% the same. And if it is a good model, then I use other stones or colours or dierent cuts to create a new piece. The design aspect is possibly the most enjoyable part of what is an extremely demanding and challenging career. Kristina travels all over the world in search of the best quality stones: India, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Namibia and Tanzania, and buying the gem stones is a dicult and tricky process.

You have to bargain when you buy stones, she says. Sometimes I buy from people who have been to the markets who have sold the stones to a wholesale shop. So there is one person in between, and there is a very little mark-up between the mine cost and the wholesale costs. Otherwise, going to the mines can be very dangerous. It is very dicult. Finding the right channels, the right places to buy the stones, trade them, the right price. It takes years of knowledge to see the really good stones. And because ultimately any piece of jewellery is about the quality of the stone, with every piece of jewellery she issues a certicate verifying the authenticity and value of the stones. Under the label Kristina, she has exhibited

in Qatar, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Middle East clients are very good clients, she says, and hopes to sell her pieces in Kenya early next year. She does not, however, develop dierent designs for a particular market. If one thing is beautiful then it is beautiful all over the world, she says, suggesting that the perception of beauty is a universal quality. Travelling to exhibitions is the second inherent risk in her business since Kristina is required to carry around and display expensive jewellery. But she shrugs this o, accepting it as part of the job. With this job there is always a risk and a danger. In the beginning you are afraid but you get used to it. If you get that afraid, then you cant do this job. Although Kristina lives in Watamu, she has
October Nairobi Business Monthly |

Society & Culture

Fighting poverty, one click at a time

BY MWIKALI MATATA

B
Kristinas showroom and laboratory in Rome.

The golden rule for jewellery

Wear some jewellery every day that is easy, fun and not too expensive Dos and donts Do - wear jewellery that makes you look and feel young Dont - wear old family jewels because jewellery adds age to the wearer Do - wear semi precious or precious stones Dont - wear stones that are not natural Do - wear 18 carat gold, white gold or platinum Dont - wear pure gold because it is too yellow Do - wear jewellery that matches the clothes you are wearing Dont - categorise jewellery pieces as for the day or the night Do - look at the quality of a stone, and insist on a certicate from a gemologist when buying jewellery

a laboratory in Rome where a team of eight people actualise her designs. It takes a long time to create one piece, between one and two months, she said. First by hand then by computer. Using a software called Rhinoceros, 3D models of Kristinas drawings are created, and then tweaks and adjustments are made to the online image which allows a reduction in the weight of the piece. One gramme of gold is $50, said Kristina. So if one necklace is 50 grammes of gold, it is very expensive. You have to make it as light as possible so that the prices dont go up. Her second rule of thumb is the type of metal in which to set the stones. She prefers to use 18-carat gold or white gold because it is soft and easier to work. She also uses platinum even though it is a much harder metal, but never uses 24-carat gold because it is too yellow. Kristinas jewellery ranges from $3,000 (Sh250,000) to $55,000 (Sh4.6 million).
| Nairobi Business Monthly October

y his own account, leaving formal employment ve years ago to pursue photography was the best decision Nick Klaus Omondi ever made. His work, under Nick Klaus, has appeared in both international and local publications, but his images of poverty are the most thought-provoking. Photography is my voice, he says. Thats how I tell my story, thats how I express myself because I always believe a picture never lies. His passion to tell African stories through the lens won him the Editorial Images Best Professional Stories silver award last year from the Zoom-in on Poverty Global Photo Contest initiated by Xinhua News Agency in partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Winning the award was quite a surprise to me. My friends had been telling me my work is good. As a photographer you look at your work and just say this is ne, he says. Since winning the award, Mr Omondi has worked with other UN bodies and Flying Doctors to tell the stories of poverty as well as oer solutions by documenting poor peoples creative solutions to their everyday struggles. Mr Omondi says he was told about the competition by a friend he met during his visit to Dadaab Refugee Camp in Northern Kenya. He submitted 25 photos taken from various places like Dadaab, Sinai and Dandora in Nairobi and other Nairobi slums. I used to do photography on poverty during my free time. After Dadaab, I decided to focus on it, he says. The second born in a family of seven,