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Doing Life With… is a BellaNaija Features series that showcases how people live, work, travel, care for their families and… everything in between. We are documenting the lives of all people and ensuring everyone is well-represented at BN.
Did you miss our last conversation with Zahra Ahmed? You can catch up here.
This week, we are doing life with Kelly Praise, a Lagos-based hand-made jeweller who makes subtle jewellery pieces with faith-based and deep-meaning inscriptions. Enjoy the conversations!
Hey Kelly, describe how you’re feeling in three words
Really sad, at peace and grateful.
So, what are you currently working on?
I have three projects on my bench at the moment. The first is a very beautiful engagement ring, which I am really excited and nervous about because I haven’t made anything like this before. I also have a gold band, a new necklace and an earring set that just came in. I also have my Kintugi workshop coming up on Sunday, so I am just doing some final preparations. Then, I am working on my itinerary for my long-awaited and deserved holiday, haha.
You need the rest
I do. I do.
Tell us about your background—your upbringing, education, and
I am always excited to talk about my background because that is such an integral part of who I am today, as well as my faith which is the most important thing to me. I grew up in Jos, Nigeria with my mom, dad, sister and two brothers. It’s a conservative and communal town. You don’t raise children alone in Jos. Your neighbours raise them with you. You share resources. The weather is perfect. It is just such a wonderful place. That’s one of the reasons I struggled a bit when I moved to Lagos.
I also spent a lot of time alone as a child, and I think that’s one of the reasons I am so introverted and prefer solitude. All my siblings were either in school or away so I was mostly home by myself reading my storybooks. I loved reading so much that I knocked on every single door to ask if they had any storybooks for me. My neighbours nicknamed me storybook. I used to make friends so easily. I wonder what happened.
Adulthood?
Maybe. Like, my mom used to be a part of a homemakers club where they learnt and taught other women different skills and just came together to do things. Being the last born, after my mum picked me up from school, we went to do her business together. We went to the homemakers club on days she had to. All my mom’s suppliers and business partners knew me. I really just wanted to go home for cartoon time which started at 4 pm but I think God had other plans. Being in that environment is where my love for jewellery sparked and following my mom around planted the seed of entrepreneurship in my mind without me even knowing.
Are there any moments from your childhood that shaped you into what you are today
One key moment in my childhood that shaped my faith isn’t something I can talk about here because I think it’s a bit too graphic but it happened during one of the Jos crises. I was in secondary school at the time but we had to leave because of how bad things had gotten and I remember almost every Sunday, we had to go visit a church member who had been a victim of the crises. There was a particular day I watched everyone praying and singing praises to God in Hausa, despite it all. That was the kind of faith I grew up with and the kind of faith I want to continue to have. Even if he takes it all, including my life, it’s okay because he is truly the owner of this world. And when push comes to shove, there is really no one else we have but him.
I remember a day the crisis was brewing and we saw the people breaking glasses and banging on cars coming. Amid the shouts of ‘An fara’ which is Hausa for ‘it has started,’ my mom had to lock her shops, climb a fence into JUTH and drive 15 minutes to our house on a road that had nobody else, just to keep us safe. Thinking about it now, that was such a risk but that is my mom. Fearless.
Jos was really a part of you
Jos raised me, and I am truly so grateful for it. It has given me strength and imbibed the spirit of kindness, faith, resilience, grit and communalism. It helped me find my purpose and gave me lifelong friendships. I don’t think there is more to life than these things.
How did you become a jeweller?
I like to say I have always been a jeweller but just in different stages and phases and that’s the beauty of the journey for me. I started with beads when I used to go with my mom to the club. I didn’t actively learn; I picked it up and my mom being such… I don’t even know the words to use. She bought me beads anytime she was coming back from work. I’d make the beads and she would give her friends to buy. I also took a few to school. There is nothing I have been interested in that my mom did not support, and trust me, I have sold a lot of things. Kilisi, water bottles, jalabia. In the midst of all that, I knew jewellery was going to be it for me but I didn’t plan to end here.
After my bead-making phase, during the pandemic in 2020, Kelly Praise Jewellery was born. I started making affirmation jewellery pieces to help people through tough times. It wasn’t a very hopeful time for many, with fear, sicknesses, loss of jobs and so many things going on simultaneously, so I feel privileged to have lit that candle in my own corner. I wanted to get to the point where I could have creative control from start to finish and goldsmithing and silversmithing were things I have always wanted to learn but I didn’t have the money to.
Fast forward to 2022, I met Tejiiri of Tejiri Jewellery Company at an event. God bless her soul. She mentioned she might be doing a training, and I told her to let me know when. In March 2024, I took the beginners course, and then the intermediate right after. Looking back, I can see how God has orchestrated everything and I am grateful. That gave birth to Kelly Praise Fine Jewellery. So now, I am making, but still learning every day because I have such a long way to go. That is both daunting and very exciting.
Can you run us through the creative processes of making a type of jewellery?
It’s a bit hard to compress days of work and sometimes, flops into a few sentences but let me try. Most jewellery pieces pretty much have the same process at least for the first 3-4 stages. This is for fabrication which I do and not casting, which is the next thing I want to learn to do.
You have to know what you want to do first, so you sketch out the design. If it is a commissioned project, align with the client on all the details. Metal type, colour, stone type, size, shape, just everything. Then you melt the metal and create your sheet or wire then you just go from there. You form the piece and solder what you need to solder. File, sand, clean, polish, and set the stone if need be.
Is there a fun moment from the process that you’d like to share with us?
If by fun, you mean moments that almost made me lose my mind, I have a lot. It can be so dramatic. Or maybe I can. In the earlier days, I used to have a lot of these but I think over time, you just have to learn to have thicker skin and not see it as the end of the world.
I remember working with over 18 grams of a client’s gold and it got contaminated. That had never happened to me, so I was so confused and scared. S/O to Tejiri for helping me out. Another time, I had just finished soldering, and the metal fell and burnt right through the dress I was wearing. I looked for it for hours. I didn’t even know it was still in my dress.
Misplacing a stone just when it was time to set it. I remember lying on the floor in tears, lol. Gold flying out of my hand never to be found. Kissing my face with a hot torch. Sigh. There are so many but, these experiences have taught me even more than a school may have because they help you think. You are faced with the problem and you have to fix it and make it work.
What part of making a piece of jewellery do you enjoy most?
I think soldering and polishing are very satisfying. But the thing about jewellery making is, if you don’t pay attention to one step and move on too quickly to the next, you will struggle and you won’t have a great piece. As I grow, I try to enjoy every part and I think I am learning too. I used to dread soldering gold so much because my pieces always ended up melting but I have learnt to control my heat. That’s how it works.
Is there any particular challenge you’re currently experiencing in your line of work?
Primarily, import and FX. I have to import virtually every single tool I use. It’s a bit tough sometimes, especially with the instability. I have to give credit to Tejiri. A lot of things would have slowed me down, but she has helped me with it. She is always willing to help, solves problems with me, counsels me, and is just such an angel. If I have a new job and I have no clue how to start, I just go to her studio and sit in front of her, and I’d leave with it pretty much done. God bless her. I pray I can be that to someone one day.
Given what you do, what’s a typical day in your life
My days are pretty much the same. I wake up, pray and go to the gym for one hour. If I can’t make it in the morning, I go in the evenings. When I come back, I have some coffee, make something to eat and just spend a longer time praying or reading my devotional for the day. This step is very important because it kind of sets the tone for my day. If I have a project to work on, I get right into it and most times, I am on the bench till evening without even realising it. Then I watch a show, talk to loved ones, journal and sleep.
If you could remove three things from your life right now, what would they be and why?
I have thought about this question for two days and I don’t even know why. Maybe pain of any form, doubts and limitations of any kind.
Thank you for being on Doing Life With…, Kelly
Thank you for having me.
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Many thanks to Kelly Praise for having this conversation with us and answering all our questions – and swiftly too, we must add.
Do you love this content, have any feedback for us or want to be a BellaNaija Features contributor? We’d love to read from you. Shoot us an email: [email protected]. Join us on Saturday for the next episode!
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