 Welcome back to the YouTube channel to your boy Mr. Ghana Baby and I'm back again with another interesting eye-opening episode. From the last episode, I showed you how an African American builds a school in Ghana. Not knowing that it's not just a school that she runs but she also has one. Actually, I don't want to introduce you once again but I also have one. Yeah, we have a design studio recycling and resourceful design studio. Wow. Which is actually part of the broader part of the institute. That's our residential campus. And here is our training, workspace and professional development studios. Interesting. I've seen like, is this the same brick that I used to build a school? Yeah. Originally, we produced our own earth bricks using the local latch right with a small percent of cement. Over there in that corner, they're all covered up now but those are our brick making machines that we brought from India. Wow. And then, so what we're doing here now is because we have a couple of projects. We have a textile project where we use old denim. We buy, we get denim from the second hand market. Most people don't know that textiles is the second biggest polluter after oil in the world. Wow. And African countries are particularly affected because the West sends their second hand clothes down here. Shiploads. And at the beginning it looks like a nice gesture but the fact is it ruined the textile industry. And also a million pieces of used textiles go into landfill around Accra every week. So our small gesture is to take the old denim and the old jeans. We treat it, we discolor it, we tear it up and we make new clothing. That's amazing. So you get the raw materials from Ghana. Yeah. From the Obrudiweiru market. Second hand market. Recycle it. Recycle it and through resourceful design we come up with a really, I think a very beautiful designed product. This in your own house. Yeah. Right here at the design studio. But you have to take me around. You really have to take me around. So where do we start? Okay, well, we have the textiles and so we're just clearing this area and rebuilding where the textiles are received, where they're cut, where they're washed, where they're sorted and graded. You might notice if you're looking on the walls we have thousands of pieces of bottles on the walls that we collect. And right now you're seeing us a little bit in transition because we're reorganizing our space. But if you look over there you see all the bottles that we have. And as I take you around you'll see some of the way those bottles are used. We cut and polish bottles. We're just building a new kiln so that we can slump. Okay. And that's just playful. That's just plastic bottles we one time had. You know, just to show you how you can make something aesthetic out of nothing. You know, it was a kind of wall divider. We have a simple, you can look at all the bottles and things we have over there. We have a simple cutting machine. We make, I can show you, we make bricks out of the glass bottles. Like we cut them, yeah, we take two bottles and cut them in half. And then we tape them together. Now we can insert that in the wall and it's almost like stained glass. So the light will come through. And we have different colors. We do it in different colors. We have plain ones, you know, the blue ones from the gin bottles. And we make glasses. And when we go into the design studio I can show you more. We make cut to make glasses. We make candle holders. Oh my goodness. We make pendants for lights so that you can make lamps. We make dessert dishes. These are not polished yet, but they all get polished. You'll see some of the polished ones later. So, and then you'll see too how we take bicycle rims and old poles and how we make mannequins for clothing that you can hang clothing on. This is not the bicycle rim. Sorry, the handlebars. That's the handlebar and that's just the pole. And that's a brake router at the bottom that becomes the stand. And once we get the head on it, then a man could put his suit, hang his tie, put his shoes, and you can... This is mind-blowing. So, and then we have... So we have the facilities here to do woodworking. We have welding. And we have a boutique workshop over here. And so you can see we also collect lots of plastic bottles and use those for a variety of things. I'll take you into the area, which is one of our studios and where we're opening our new boutique. And, you know, we work with an alliance of professional people. And here's some of the jewelry. And this is just to show the level and quality of design you can get using cow horn, leather, you know, locally. And I just want to know, like you do this alone or with, like, with Ghanians on board. Exactly. I have a co-designer. We have different departments. You've met Kofi, who does our environmental studies, educational work with, yeah, around environmental studies. And Fulera, who is a co-designer with me, but she does most designing with the jewelry and the soap making and the candle making. That's Fulera. And Tirene told me that she works with you. Yes, she does. What is your role in here? Okay, so it's a collaborative piece at the moment. And we all know that the new business is collaboration. Exactly. You collaborate so that you can reach out to a wider audience. If you are alone, nobody will find you. If you are together, you go far as we say. So, since my interest was intensified, when I saw that we were thinking alike and when like-minded people come together, it's a pshh, I mean, you know. So I came in, we've been talking for, I think about eight, seven years of collaborating and slowly, slowly by show, I mean, but sure we have implemented, you know, is wanting to think about it and the other things. So that is what we are doing. And what you see here are all from natural, that's why we've actually displayed on the palm to show you the relationship with nature. So these are coconut shells here. Coconut shells? Yes, coconut shells. So just the kubi that you eat. So we crack the dried one, the very matured one. You take the shells and then we cut them. As you saw already, we had shells from the seeds, I mean, stones and seeds. The seeds are actually anything you drill holes in and you can string, we call them beads. So these are coconut shells. This is a cow horn, like this bracelet here. You see, this is a cow horn bracelet and this is a cow horn with brass and this is the same cow hide. So this is not imported. There's nothing imported on this piece. Yes, yes. And these are recycled glass beads from Krobo. You see, as you saw, we have an oven down there to bake the beads. And then we traveled to saw some of the beads from Krobo area. We know they make this lovely stuff. So we put these recycled pieces together and all you see here. And this is a cow horn here. These are beads made from recycled glass and painted. And these are cow horns and these are brass and everything is made in Ghana. The brass you see here is from Komase. You know, the Komase people are known for making solid brass. So we incorporate all of that with a few from other African countries like Burkina Faso. If you want good tarned leather, you can fall on Burkina Faso. So it's still the African sub-region business we try to promote. I love your earrings. I forgot to talk about the earrings. So this we call the gauges. You know, you gauge and you wear. You put it on. So it's a pin. So matricule. So everybody thinks I have a big hole. Yes, why not? I rock what I wear. So I've been doing this for 15 years now. And then I found until who is like a mother to me and I mean in the same community. Why not? So we do all of these things and then we give back to society because we get the kids to come here. We have the community participating when we have wet shops and all of that. And for me, that's the best you can give to give back. Yes. That's beautiful. Yes, to give back. So we have soaps. We make candles. Maybe in the future we show you our shop. I mean, I want to because right now I think because of COVID you guys are showing me things that are already made but I want to come back again to see people. Yes. Yes. So we definitely come back again. That's right. So we'll be happy to have you. And thank you. We love what you do for mother Ghana and Africa showing the world what we do. Yes. Thank you. And then we have a couple of young apprentices inside but I'll just show you. I hope you get enough light in here. So you can see the different light fixtures that we make. I think you may have seen some of the rooms on the other side that are made out of simple plastic water bottles. And over here you can just survey all the stuff that we collect. Cow horns, bottles, bottle caps, inner tube cans, bottle cans that we make stars in different shapes out of Coca-Cola cans, whiskey covers, shells, all kind of shells, big shells, small shells, just anything. PVC pipes, which we cut into pieces, just anything that could be used. Yeah. Yeah. With it. Here's a fun example. These belts and things are just computer cords covered with African fabric with glass beads and they're lovely belts that you can tie around your waist. And it's an old computer cord in the center. Okay. If we come in here, you get to see what the stained glass looks like. I'd love to see that light. It's really vibrant and lovely. And then our denim, we make covers for the furniture. Those are old jeans. That's old jeans. And what we've done is just discolor it. And then you can see that's where the pocket used to be. Yeah. Yeah. We're right now, as I said, in transition we're upgrading facilities. And now getting ready to get our marketing strategy and get our things online. This is just, you know, the COVID, you know, made us take a pause and reorganize and that's what we're doing. But these are tables made out of old wood and metal pipes. Just pieces of old wood and metal pipes. So anyway, we get old jeans. Okay. Just all kind of old jeans here. Different. And sometimes we take the jeans and we bleach them. Take all the color out. And then we cut them up so that we get shapes that are like skins. And this is what we use as our kind of raw material. But we don't just cut them like that. We take the straps off. I mean the waistband. Okay. And then we open up the waistbands after we take them off. Then we open them up. Okay. And then when we open them up, then we color them in different ways so that we get different patterns. And then we also take off all the zippers. And we take off the pockets. And we take off the side strips. Okay. And after we bleach materials, here you can see on the wall here, after we bleach, we make different patterns. Taking the color out so we get all different types of patterns that we can work with. So then we have a different kind of material to work with. And I always say get our skins because for me a leg is like a skin. Okay. And after we do that, we'll cut the pieces. Then we re-sew them back. And maybe we'll make a pair of trousers. Okay. Yeah, we re-put them together again with a different kind of waistband. And you get another whole kind of original product. Or sometime we take these different strips. Essie. Yeah, come and help me. We take the strips and put them together. And let's open it up. We get a really nice spread. Something really, really beautiful. Now sometime we use these, we make household products bedspreads. Or sometimes we use it as fabric to make coats. Coats. Coats, yeah. Do you have one in here? Yeah. I'd love to see it. Essie, here's a good example of the back, how we use it on the back of a jacket. Yeah. You can try it on. It's great. And it really is cool. It does. Let me give you a little... All right. I want to be cool too. Wait a minute. I want to be cool too. What you should notice is that our buttons, holes are made of the buttonholes from the jeans. And our buttons are also from the jeans. So the whole product is recycled. So here's just a little bit different style. But we're kind of laid back and cool. Give them the back here. The back? And then... So the people that work here, you train them? Yeah. Essie's a young woman. Oh. She's a sewer. She's learning design. She's learning. She does electrical. Well, you can tell them all the stuff you can do, Essie. What do you do in here? But Essie, you look so young. She's going to be amazing. What are you going to start doing on Monday? What are you going to be learning on Monday? Okay. The education system that you've introduced in Ghana. Yeah. We like to think that it's an education system, but our goal is to create marketable items. And not just... When somebody looks at our product, they shouldn't see recycled. They should see design and fashion. Here's a bomber jacket. And here's a car coat. I'll let Essie put on the bomber jacket and I'll put on the car coat. And these are our designs. Let's pop your collar. That's good. Put your hand in your pocket. Be cool. And then... Okay. We have another one. Okay. Let me show you another coat, which is pretty cool. A full-length denim coat. That's really great for the fall and spring. And then I'll show you one of our latest ones, where we're getting into now, not just taking the color out, but redying the denim afterwards. And this one we've done with a dye. Now we're trying to experiment with natural dyes, with turmeric and other colors, so that we'll have a completely recycled product. How much really sell this to me? This coat sells for about $500. But for you, $450 is okay. I don't think this is the right price, though. But do you see Essie's jacket? I have to say that's really a jacket that young people really like. And what's nice is if you add a zipper, you'll see that it has the... We use... We use... The lining is kind of... Disopen it. Bateek. So we use recycled material or made in Ghana African fabric. But everything has to come from here. Something I think I... Oh. This is our... I don't know if you make this one here, too? Oh, this is a finite job. That's the kitty wear. Okay. For cool kids. All right. That's for cool kids. This is no smogs. Yeah, those are nose masks. We're doing a subcontract with the government. From here? Yes. In fact, there you go. And Essie works on this project, too. In fact, she's very fast. And here's some of the nose masks. You can see the... This is really for the Ghana fans. You can see the coat. Exactly. We're proud of Ghana. We're proud of the way Ghana did during the COVID that she was really a leader in the world. So many people congratulated the president's efforts around the world. Yeah. I want to know, do you need any kind of support to make this bigger? We are doing... This is a subcontract. These masks are made for the Ministry of Health. So they send the materials to sleek garments, one of their main contractors, and we support that initiative. Do you believe that Africa is the future? Absolutely. Absolutely. We have everything here. And we still have skills. We're just not even a generation away from having complete respect for the environment. And complete respect for the environment is what's going to shape industry, commerce, and development in the future. Thank you so much for talking to me. Thank you, too.