Amigas Jewels is a lakeside group with bi-monthly meetings to learn and share jewelry-making techniques.
This winter the 30 members of the group fashioned and gift-wrapped more than 100 beaded necklace and earring sets which are being given to the elderly women who attend the Mother’s Day celebration at Corazon de Ancianos.
Corazon de Ancianos is a home for the elderly of Jocotepec of extremely limited means. To date most of the very independent people of the area visit the community facility for midday meals and to participate in the health services and planned activities, which include folkloric dance classes, the crowning of a queen of the “third age,” musical programs and handicraft projects.
Expat Susy Wright, who founded Amigas Jewels about eight years ago, explained the group’s project: “We recognize how fortunate we are, and we were looking for a way to give back to the community and to others who haven’t had the advantages we take for granted. Most of us do a lot of jewelry making and always have extra materials that we pooled and so that we could combine the colors and textures to make pieces these women will enjoy wearing.”The Amigas Jewels meet each January to plan a varied series of programs for their twice-monthly meetings.
“We really enjoy having speakers come to meetings to share the new techniques they’ve learned, and our own members share the skills they’ve learned,” said Wright. “Flo Rhodes recently showed the group how to make tennis bracelets with crystals. I did a session on making paper beads, another month we learned more about wire wrapping. One of our field trips this year will be to San Juan Evangelista to learn about using obsidian.”
Members look forward to meetings that are called Beading Bees. Everyone gets together to work on projects and to buy, sell and swap materials.
“We love having new members, and finding people to speak to our group. Anyone who would like to join us in either capacity can email me for more information at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.,” said Wright.