Mathioro’s love for pearls started, like many children, with her mother’s jewellery box. The colourful beads caught her eyes. Mathioro, her sisters and neighbours began spending her free time making beaded jewellery. From anklets, belly chains, necklaces and more, Mathioro liked to play with colours and shapes. It became her way of expressing herself.
“Beads calm me down. They ground me.”
In Senegal, beaded jewellery brings health and protection to the youngest, while also being a statement of femininity and sensuality for women, who wear them around their hips. Beads have been following Mathioro throughout the various moments of her life, in health and in sickness, for better or for worse. Each of her creations is inspired by her world, the people around her, places she went to, her emotions and her wildest dreams.
