Adjara Tapsoba is an artist and jeweller from Burkina Faso who has made Abuja her home. Her venture into necklace designing started at the age of 24 when she decided to collect leftover materials from a sculptor’s studio and turn them into earrings, which she sold locally. As time went on she also started making necklaces to go with the earrings. She did this, she said, in her “quest for survival” after having gone through a lot.
Orphaned at the age of 12
Born the 14th child into a polygamous family in 1976, Adjara’s mother died when she was 4 years old while her father died when she was 12, leaving her to care for herself, working as a housemaid, cleaner, sales girl, etc. At the age of 17 and never having had the opportunity to step into a classroom, she was forced into marriage to a much older man by her uncle. The marriage produced two children but ended in a divorce – and this was when she started her craft of making earrings and necklaces. “In time,” she says, “the demand for those small necklaces grew.”
New designs using new materials
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| A necklace by Adjara Tapsoba |
Full-time artist and jewellery designer
Today, Adjara is happily married to Job Anu and they have two children. She is a full-time jewellery designer. “I don’t have a shop yet,” she says, “but friends help me by hosting me and inviting friends and family over.”
Adjara Tapsoba can be contacted at:
081 6476 9995
