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In August I returned from my fifth trip to Kabul creating a new collection with the craftsman
at the Turquoise Mountain Charity. I was so excited to be working with the first group
employed women graduates who have now joined the workshop. It was wonderful to see their
pride in their work and hear what a help it is for them to be able to contribute to their families
income, as well as going out to work and having creative input in the design process.
The workshop (inside an old shipping container) which is criss-crossed with Afghan woven
carpets and just space for the eight men who were grinding and polishing pebbles of Lapis
Lazuli from the ancient mines of Badakshan, setting the angel pinks and greens of Kunzite
from Azajib as well as soldering chains together.
I was in awe of the work Turquoise Mountain had done and the achievements within Murad
Khane in the old part of Kabul. There has been slow and painful restoration of the 150 year
old buildings - in an area that had become a slum, nine feet deep in rubbish (mainly littered
with plastic bags). It has now been dug out and cleared away, drains have been built, and
electricity and running water have been brought in. This neighbourhood now has a primary
school, the first primary health clinic built to service (50,000 people who had no direct access
to health care before), a literacy centre, a library, computers, and an institute of Afghan arts
and architecture that teach English and business skills.
These projects have transformed an area where heroin addiction and unemployment was
rife. In hiring 400 local men a day, training them with restoration and construction skills, it has
meant a huge change in the quality of life for the residents. I was so inspired and delighted to
see where the money raised in part by the sale of the jewellery collections had been helping
to bring about such change.
The collections I have designed in Afghanistan always draw on traditional Afghan design and
materials. This latest collection has drawn from the Turkman flower designs of Central Asia,
silver with gold wash necklaces and bracelets set with bright spring green peridot from central
Afghanistan, there are tumbled angel coloured kunzites of pale pinks and whispers of blue
and green, we have also started to use enamel - a technique used traditionally but a skill that
has become lost, a collection of coloured butterflies, something beautiful light and ephemeral
at a time of increasing tension and violence in a country at a cross roads.
In supporting Turquoise Mountain you are helping train and employ young women and men
and give them a hope for the future.The new Turquoise Mountain collection is now in the London and LA shops.
