The current obsession for Style Observer (SO) is the Ginger Hill collection from local straw craft designer Beenybud. The extensive line of home items includes everything from small thatch serving bowls and trays to ottomans and room-sized rugs. While many of these items are available in Kingston stores such as Fontana, My Jamaica and Craft Cottage, most are custom-made to meet the specifications of interior designers and home, hotel and villa owners.

If you’ve not heard of Beenybud, crawl out from under that rock and get with the programme!

Beenybud was birthed in 1972 up in Gordon Town and partners with artisans and community groups around the island to produce a wide range of personal and home items made from locally sourced and sustainable natural fibres such as jippijappa straw, thatch, banana bark, coconut, wicker, sisal and khuskhus grass (vetiver). The products are handmade by mostly rural women who specialise in traditional weaving methods but who have also embraced a modern design approach to create a fresh take on Jamaican craft and fibre art.

“We work with about 50 artisans from all across the island, but mostly from St Catherine, St Elizabeth and St Mary,” shared Ashley Rousseau, Beenybud principal. “There are a few men but most of these super-talented artisans are rural women and all have learnt the skills from their mothers or other family members for whom straw/thatch/wicker craft was once a major income-earning activity before the onslaught of cheap Asian imports.”

Rousseau sees her role as connecting artisan groups, designing new products (or facilitating the necessary training in design skills), introducing new ways of using existing skills to suit modern tastes and demands, and then distributing and marketing these products to customers both locally and overseas.

Of immediate concern is that the average age of her artisans is over 60 and there is a general lack of interest among young people to engage in the craft. “We are therefore actively advocating for a national training programme in fibre craft (and art and craft in general) as well as a project to research and document traditional natural fibre weaving methods and the history of those communities in which weavers live as a historical record of an endangered but very valuable feature of Jamaican life and cultures.”

It’s a call that needs to be heeded!

The Ginger Hill Collection is available in Kingston at: Craft Cottage, My Jamaica, Sobelio, Strawberry Hill, Saltwater at Sovereign and Fontana at Waterloo Square. And on the north coast at Saltwater gift shop at Sangster International Airport and hotel gift shops such as Sandals, Couples, Round Hill, Tryall, S Hotel, Zoetry, GoldenEye, Jamaica Inn, and Bahia.

Ashley Rousseau

E-mail: beenybudja@gmail.com

Contact: 876-552-8051

IG Beenybud