Dan Eldon & Mom Kathy Eldon Take Us Into The Omo Valley & Heart Of Consciousness

Images of the Omo Valley people by Hans SilvesterWe are off to Africa, Ethiopia specifically in an ongoing series of articles about the Omo Valley people, living in southern Ethiopia near the Lake Turkana basin.

As Benjamin Roussey explains in his series of GlamTribale blog posts about the Omo Valley people, Lake Turkana remains the oldest place on the globe that houses evidence of human habitation. Currently all paleoanthropology roads lead to Lake Turkana and the work of the famous Leakey family, launched by Louis and Mary Leakey and now followed by several Leakey members. 

Each day of my GlamTribale journey is a trip into my own personal history and connections. I arrived at Lake Turkana on my own — with no help from my muse Dan Eldon, the young photographer who was killed in Somalia. Or so I thought.

I was about to write that my heart was pounding a couple months ago when I Googled “Dan Eldon + Leakey” and read on DanEldon.org that Dan and Louis Leakey’s granddaughter Lara were best friends. How incredible that Dan was so close to research about the beginnings of human civilization!

There are parts of my story I will leave untold for the moment, because I want to share them first with Dan’s mother Kathy, who is now a friend of mine. That reality is in itself is a pretty incredible stop on my own journey.

‘Gaugin in Africa’ by Dan Eldon @ http://thegallerystore.net/daneldoncollection/Gauguin-in-Africa/

Being a fastidious fact checker, I just Googled again and this time I uncovered another piece of information in this interconnecting puzzle. Dan Eldon was close to the Leakey family because his mother and my friend Kathy worked with the Leakey family. Reading about Kathy Eldon on MyHero.com, my heart tightened yet again. 

Marilyn Jones writes about the days after Kathy’s divorce from husband Mike Eldon: “Kathy Eldon and her daughter Amy returned to London broke and depressed.” After a period of prayer and reflection, Kathy awoke one morning, announcing “I had a dream I should start a company called Creative Visions.“ 

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Anne Discovers Jozi Maboneng Johannesburg's Artistry & Enlightenment

Watching this GlobalTribe video featuring Creative Visions’ Amy Eldon, I’m having a eureka moment about my own productivity and inability to officially launch my newsletter ‘Engage’.

STOP!!!!!, Anne. You don’t need to find new material for ‘Engage’. Your life and websites are overflowing with newsletter material. Stop this relentless pursuit of more perfection and mine the rich editorial landscape at your fingertips.

Just now I found this inspiring video above,  after posting this very chic editorial:

Ross Garrett Captures Artistic Chic in Jozi Maboneng for Elle South Africa January 2013

Because I’m never just a poster of materials blogger, I wanted to understand the meaning of ‘Jozi Maboneng’. After a quick search, off I went to this special district in Johannesburg — a place that is dedicated to peace, humanity, understanding and artistic creativity.

Maboneng Precinct - Place of Light

Consider this little adventure another digital safari. Now that my life is so absorbed with Dan Eldon’s, I’m employing a new search technique.  I found Kathy’s PBS video by searching Dan Eldon + South Africa. This weekend I pieced together amazing intersections in my writing and Dan’s life by assuming there was a connection and then searching for it.

I will reveal those intersections in ‘Engage’.

Given the richness of editorial soil that exists at AOC, I have NO reason not to launch our weekly ‘Engage’ Newsletter before the new year. Besides, I have three new writers starting — an investment that will hopefully free me from so much responsibility for the daily posts.

Subscribe now for ‘Engage’ and start off the new year with me, as GlamTribale and I conduct our own digital safari Dan Eldon style. ~ Anne

Kol Ami Crafts Show Elkins Park Jewelry Raffle Prize | Ethiopia's Omo Valley People

Hans Silvester’s Natural Fashion

GlamTribale’s Spring 2013 collection is inspired by the Omo River Valley people and the images of Hans Silvester. We share our gorgeous raffle prize for this weekend’s craft show October 13 & 14  at Kol Ami in Elkins Park.

The Craft & Fine Arts show @ Kol Ami

Congregation Kol Ami is located at 8201 High School Road in Elkins Park.

Saturday night, October 13, there is a special preview night and sale from 6:30 to 10:00 pm. Tickets are $20 for members, and $25 to general public at the door.

On Sunday the crafts and fine arts show is open from 11am to 5pm. Tickets are $5 at the door.

GlamTribale $150 Gift Certificates

We will register email addresses for our new ENGAGE! newsletter on both Oct. 13th and 14th. One winner will be drawn each day for a $150 GlamTribale gift certificate.

Tribo Rio Omo Africa

Ethiopia’s Omo Valley People

Ethiopia’s Surma and Mursi tribes in the southwest Omo River valley region present a unique perspective on self-expression in the African style. As a result of their nomadic lifestyle, location near lush vegetation, and inventive nature, tribe members have taken body painting and adornment to a new level of creativity which has inspired the color palette for ethniciti collections.

Photographer Hans Silvester writes in his book ‘Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from Africa’:

An arena of incessant tribal land and guerrilla warfare, and a hotbed for the arms and ivory trades, the Omo Valley nevertheless plays host — when the Kalashnikovs fall silent — to some astonishing events of a much more peaceful nature. Among the fifteen tribes that have lived in this Rift region since time immemorial, the Surma and the Mursi, two tribes that get on well together, share a taste for body painting and extravagant decorations borrowed from nature. The former is done mainly with materials from the plant world, whereas the latter predominantly comprises products of the hunt — all kinds of prophies, including buffalo horns, warthog tusks, monkey skins and more. 

GlamTribale for Kol Ami in Elkins Park

GlamTribale Omo Valley-inspired raffle gift for Oct. 13-14 The Crafts & Fine Arts Show at Kol Ami in Elkins Park, PA.It’s an exclusive set of designs that will only be made once to support the wonderful community projects of the Kol Ami temple. While we will make an entire collection inspired by the Omo Valley people, these three pieces remain one-only pieces that will not be reproduced.

The copper findings for each piece have been imported from Israel. The necklace features Hebron beads at least 200 years old. Hebron is the burial place of Jewish, Muslim and Christian faiths. Glassmaking in Hebron was not recorded until after the fall of the ancient city of Lebanon-Tyre to Crusaders.

The Hebron beads were made using Dead Sea Salts, in a variety of colors including green, yellow and blue. The beads used in our Kol Ami gift are the larger ones called Mongur. They were widely traded in Egypt, the Nile region and Sudan.

Our beads specifically came from Sudan, chosen because of Anne of Carversville’s history of standing ferocioiusly against the flogging of 40,000 women a year in Sudan.

The pieces are retail valued at:

Necklace: $895

Bracelet: $275

Earrings: $125 (Note: the pierced earrings can be converted to clip on Sunday Oct. 14th)

The Kol Ami community has a record of standing for women’s rights, and I wanted to make this linkage in the jewelry between their community efforts on behalf of women and my own.

Come see us this weekend at the Kol Ami!! ~ Anne