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Birgitte Balslev-Olesen and Pia Mouritsen are both very interested in unique designs. They also have years of passion for Africa, where they both lived for a number of years. That is the reason why they started the company Kabila trade, whose foundation in all simplicity is to import and sell African products.

With their experience, selecting the best African-quality products, they seem to have a natural interaction with elements of the Scandinavian design tradition.

Most products from Kabila trademarks are designed and manufactured by local entrepreneurs. It does work especially for women, with personal income increasing their economic independence and self-esteem. Women’s income also makes it possible to improve their children’s schooling and to improve living conditions in general for the family.

The two entrepreneurial women are using Formland Autumn 2009 MCH Herning Fairs to introduce Kabila trade and a range of unique African products, which are based in Roskilde markets.

Among the products are:
Star Trade – unique bags and baskets made from sisalplanten. Bags in different colors and patterns with beads of bone and hanke in leather.
Taste of Turkana – baskets made by Turkana women from northern Kenya. The material is leaves from Doumer-palm. Baskets have lids and can being used as a dig.
The Ark – custom-made pillows for the big Turkana basket and bags in three different sizes, all manufactured by koskind / leather.
Banana box – handmade angels in natural materials kalabasskåle and napkin rings, both with black and white patterns.
Products in soapstone – round dishes, large saltæg, large and small salt and small stylistic cat figurines in white, yellow and pink colors.
Le Collane di BETTA – “wild” jewelry, designed and manufactured in Kenya, particularly metal, horn, bone, glass, leather and fabric.
Mario Designs – unique jewelry designed by the German jewelry designer Marie Rose and made of mussel shell, bone / bone, horn, brass and coral.
Blue Hour – hand woven råsilkeduge simple, geometric embroidery, designed and manufactured by the Belgian textile designer Mia Geyser.
Paola Spataro – Italian design shawl produced in Kenya. The material is a blend of silk and jute / flax, and shawls with sleeve on one side.

In Pernille Bülow Jewelry you see a combination of Ghana and Denmark and a new unique product arises. The traditional handmade Ghanaian glass beads made of recycled glass from cars, bottles, etc. meets the Bornholm glass artist Pernille Bülow’s who has Scandinavian’s clean graphic design.

The beads are unique and made nowhere else in the world – and they are not factory produced. Pearl Producers are generally among the poorest groups in Ghana. Pernille Bülow Jewelry works with single mothers who are the most vulnerable group.

But through Pernille Bülow Jewelry women’s handicrafts are now coming out to the western world, and women learn to target their products for the Western market. This means that they can actually live by their work, send their children to school and more than just dream about even building their own house. It must be something about the unique interaction between aesthetics and function that is summarized in the concept of PURE as it is chosen as the booth theme for Formland Autumn 2009, when the jewelry is presented.

Pernille Bülow’s unique, handmade, Danish-designed and fair trade-produced jewelry is the way to succeed in a new era. We now make greater and greater demands for both past products and also their future prospects. It is part of the development cooperation that Pernille Bülow Jewelry teaches them about the western distribution mechanisms, requirements, etc. and teaches them how to conduct themselves in this new potential market.

At the stand you can meet Rachel (No. 36), one of Pernille Bülow Jewelry’s four permanent employees who have been involved from the start. She is an experienced pearl producer, does quality checks, is a bomb of energy and humor, a mother of five adult children – and quite fantastic.

You can also meet Agnes, the company’s administrator. She has only been employed for six years but is already irreplaceable. A wise, sweet and lovely girl.

Pernille Bülow writes: I have always been honest about jewelry production. Fair trade for me should not be charity but business. Otherwise, I do not think it wise and durable enough. Through our cooperation we equip women to stand on their own feet and run their own small businesses.

It is the most amazing motivation to see these women grow in their work, develop, and be proud of their uniqueness, it is obviously a huge bonus. And without it I would never have reached as far as we have now. It is hard work with the unthinkable, many detours to get a fair trade co-operation like this to succeed. I have to visit Ghana two to four times a year to teach them new designs and quality, etc. The close cooperation is a necessity. A fair trade project cannot be dealt with consultation from time to time. One is simply obliged to be part of the project itself.

We must also remember that collaboration is a win-win situation. The women earn more money, while I have been given access to some unique beads that are simply not made elsewhere.

The Danish singer/songwriter Peter Sommer has collaborated with Danish jewelry design company Pilgrim. You buy this nice peace of jewelry for men and inside you find a code, so you can download Peter Sommer’s latest album. Exists in only 500 signed copies. Cool thinking and nice design. 

From 19 September 2007, Storefront for Art and Architecture will open its façade to a kaleidoscopic exhibition of Danish design manifested through the history, life, work and products of five Danish design brands; Bang & Olufsen (sound and vision), Fritz Hansen (furniture), Georg Jensen (jewelry and silverware), Louis Poulsen (lighting) and Royal Copenhagen (porcelain).

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