Thursday 4 September 2014

Amparo Jewellery - Women in Conservation

Sue Dixon welcomed everyone back after the summer break and thanked members once again for the success of the Rockley Ralley - as such the committee had provided the nights refreshments of Cheese and Crackers, Pate and French Bread plus cakes and other 'goodies' for us to look forward to.  Lots of September 'babies' received their birthday cards and Jean Alcock received a round of applause in her absence for her nomination by the South Yorkshire Federation for the Lady Denman Cup - we wish her well. 

Elizabeth Salaman then gave us an inspirational presentation about her business which supports the poor of Columbia by offering women the chance to earn a living by exploiting the natural products in the area where they live.  Women for Conservation which uses an image of Elizabeth's mother Maria Amparo Hernandez as its logo was founded in 2008.  The Jewellery  is made from the sustainable material Tagua - also known as vegetable ivory - which is the fruit of a palm tree which is polished and cut into the many items which were on display for us to admire and buy.

We really enjoyed looking at the hand-made items, each one of which was labelled with the name of the person who had made it and many of us treated ourselves to a bit of early 'Christmas shopping'.

Rita Hewitt with Elizabeth and her display

Once again, we'd had another really enjoyable evening thanks to our hard-working committee.  We were reminded about next weeks luncheon club at the Masons and the AGM next month plus lots of other trips and items of interest to look forward to.