Zinj Workshop

The beadwork is done on fine Italian nubuck leather panels that are then upholstered onto a beautifully engineered piece of furniture built in Venice – The Butler.

Zinj workshop makes beautiful beaded accessories embellished with a ‘contemporary take’ on traditional East African beadwork. Every piece is meticulously beaded and stitched by hand to a very high technical standard.

The workshop creates the patterns featuring different themes in their beadwork, for example, there is a theme called the ‘Origins’ that is inspired by ancient Africa, cave dwelling, rock art and the elemental artefacts of ancient times: bone, clay, hide, shells, rock, stone and fire.

Zinj – a name used by Herodotus to describe the ancient Swahili coast from southern Somalia to northern Mozambique – is the inspiration for this unusual little workshop, in the tiny, rural village of Takaungu, overlooking the Indian Ocean, where a small group of local beadwork artists create our beaded leather panels.