News — behind the scenes RSS

Well, it finally seems that we can kiss winter goodbye here on the East Coast, but Tony couldn't wait for the warm weather to arrive and had to jet back to Tanzania for a few gorgeous weeks. At this time of year, the rainy season is just finishing up and everything is incredibly lush and green. While spring in North Carolina is lovely, I have to be honest--it's pretty dreary today, and I'm jealous!  Tony has been updating our Instagram (follow us at instagram.com/seededUSA) with some great shots of our new line of shoe bags with this season's kitenge, made by our talented tailor Doto: It's so exciting to see how they are turning out! You might notice that Doto's...

We had some interest expressed in seeing a bit more of the process behind our sandals, so we decided to give you a peek into the making of our shoes.  First, the leather uppers are cut and marked with the pattern, then given to one of our skilled beaders to complete the specified design.  (These are the hands of Fatuma, one of our most talented beaders. She was happy to let us take a picture of her hands, but, like many Muslim women in Tanzania, she is uncomfortable with having her face photographed.) The design on a pair of Seeded sandals requires anywhere between 2 and 8 hours to bead, and is by far the most labor-intensive part of the...