Marcia Adams' artistic twists to cloth

Three years ago, Marcia Adams, who said she likes home decor, enrolled in an art course at the Jamaica Foundation For Lifelong Learning (JFFL), located along East Street, Kingston. The making of bead accessories, was also on the programme. Adams said she got many creative ideas from her tutor, and then there was a second installment of the programme, this time at the Camp Road campus of the JFLL.

She has high praises for the facilitator, Kenyan-Jamaican fusion artist Mazola, who, she said, inspired his students “to be creative in many different ways and to utilise recycled stuff”.

Prior to those two short courses Adams, said she was never involved in anything very artistic.

“No background in art, none whatsoever,” she quickly answered.

She signed up for the painting side of things because of her interest in home décor, but what she was exposed to by her tutors, has perhaps changed her life forever. The creative bug that lay dormant inside all her life, suddenly bit her, and now it seems like it has totally consumed her.

“If anybody had told me 10 years ago that I was creative, that this would be my journey, I would say that’s a lie,” she explained. But, the truth is, she now spends her night and days creating mostly accessories for the neck, ears and wrist, under her brand name, Marcia Adam Beauty Lies Within. The items are made mainly of natural seeds, beads, wood, metal and leather, which are just about what other artisans use.

So, drawing from her background of working with fabrics in home decor, Adams is also making and selling accessories made mainly of cloth, including jeans and African prints. The feedback to these cloth pieces she said, is encouraging.

“I stand out, because whenever I go to a show, people come over and say these are different. It’s a good feeling,” she said.

Producing these items is a major part of what Adams does to earn an income, and said she is “a million per cent satisfied” that it is what she wants to do with her life, and there are other ideas of which she is thinking to diversify her products even further.

Adams said there is no difficulty with the acquisition of the materials and the assemblage of the items, but marketing them, as a small business, can be a challenging. Fairs and festivals are main ways of getting people to see what she and her items are made of. But, her dream is to evolve from an itinerant artisan to a shop-owner.

From the beauty that lies within, a piece of her work, she says, will make you stand out in a crowd.