I aspire to be my own boss and to do things that bring light, beauty, and courage to each an every one of my customers. I began making beads as little as eight years old and later on as I grew up I began to work with “Ramatu’s Roots Heritage based in Ghana. Centricbeads began in 2017 after Ramatu’s business shut down. I quickly began to think of my own plan on how to run my own business. I went back to Somanya which is a village in the eastern region of Ghana. There I had beads made to my perfection and began my business after. One of our goals is to bring quality and authentic beads to our customers, our beads are handmade to your perfection. Most of our raw materials such as Brass, Glass Beads (Krobo Beads), Carved Wood, Cowry Shells (Cedi3), Trade Beads, Semi-precious stones, Ankara(ntoma). Which are later used to make these wonderful Bracelets, Earrings, Headwraps(Duku), Choker Necklaces and Fanny Packs? All which are made in Ghana! Our mission as a company is to provide quality and unique products to our customers. A customer knows what they want but often they challenge us to expand our horizons in order to meet their expectations. We make our prices very affordable and always give the best quality to each and every one of our customers. Our goal for the end of 2019 is to open a shop after our sales and vendor pop-up shops. Furthermore, we’ve also planned to donate some of our profits to an orphanage in Somanya (Small Village in the Eastern region of Ghana). Somanya is a place where most bead sellers in Ghana go to purchase their beads. It’s the wholesale town of beads galore, people are welcoming and very nice to each and every one of their vendors.  A little History of Ghana and our unique beads and style: Cowry shell was used as a trade bead, fetish priest believe them to be some sort of healing shell. Later on, it became the first currency of Ghana. The cowry shell is the most important trade bead in Ghana’s history (barter trade). It is seen on all our printed currencies in all of Ghana. Our glass beads are also made from pounded down glass bottles (beer bottles and soft drink bottles) they’re then melted down and put into carved clay bowls and baked in a kiln oven( some of the beads end up with natural color and others have to be hand painted). This is going to be our first time in the South and we chose this event because of the diversity and the history that would be made if Centricbeads was to be there. Diversity is one of the biggest issues that we are lacking in society today. We are looking forward to great networking and learning new things and growing and expanding the business. Centric Beads is very honored to be in New Orleans.  The cowry shell(Cedi or Cedie3)which is logo is famously known as the first currency of Ghana(Gold Coast). We chose this logo because not only does it represent Ghana but it goes along with our theme and what we stand for, this shell brings a lot of value and meaning to our Ghanaian culture and history. Beads: Beads represent a lot of things like; Culture:  In Ghana, most of the royal families also known as odehye3(Ohene, Ohemaa, Okomfo & Efo, Okyeame)chiefs/kings/queen mothers, fetish priest, and other royal counselors and dancers wear beads to represent their tribe and culture. Most royal beads can be identified by the color, painting, designs and how they are worn to represent the tribe they’re from. Womanhood: Almost about every female in Ghana from the new horns to the elderly woman have waist beads on. In other cultures they’re worn for fashion, in our culture it identifies you as a woman, other people wear them to check their weight. Fun fact: it’s disrespectful to the elderly for your beads to be hanging out your pants and it’s believed that the only man allowed to see your waist beads besides your mom and sisters is your husband. Centricbeads our goal is to bring quality and authentic beads to your customers, our beads are handmade to perfection. We mostly get our raw materials such as:brass,glass beads(krobo Beads),carved wood,cowry shells(cedi3),trade beads,semi-precious stones,Ankara(Ntoma)Bracelet,Earrings,headwrap(duku),choker necklaces,Fanny pack from West Africa Ghana formerly known as the(Gold Coast) .We make customized bracelets, necklaces, waist beads and ankle bracelets. We also trying to expand into natural Shea butter and authentic carvings from West Africa and around the world. Our mission as a company is to provide quality and unique products to our customers ,some customers know what they want and others challenge us to make the best items for them, they always love their products and always come back for new stuff .Our prices are affordable and we always make sure our customers have the ultimate Ghanaian experience wherever we go. Our goal for the end of 2019 is to open a whole after our sales and vendor pop-up shops. We also plan on donating some of our profits to an orphanage in Somanya(Small village in the Eastern region of Ghana), somanya is a place where most bead sellers in Ghana go to purchase their beads, that place is special and the people are awesome and friendly. A little History of Ghana and our unique beads and style: Cowry shell was used as a trade bead, fetish priest believe them to be some sort of healing shell, it also become our first currency. The cowry shell is the most important trade bead in Ghana’s history(barter trade :As we the locals would calls it), It’s seen on all our printed currencies in Ghana. Our  glass beads are also made from pounded down glass bottles(beer bottles, coke, fanta, sprite etc.)they’re then melted down and put into carved clay bowls and baked in a kiln oven( some of the beads end up with a natural color and others have to be hand painted). This is going to be our first time in The South and We chose this event because of the diversity and the history that would be made if Centricbeads was to be there. We are looking forward to great networking and learning new things as we go and the kind of changes we would need to know. Centricbeads would be honored to be in New Orleans .okr African culture is booming now in the modern world we live in and I strive to make sure that everyone that comes to this event would end up leaving with a piece of Ghana and it’s enriched cultures, mixing a little bit of modern beads with our trade beads makes everything unique about our company. Not everyone can relate to our culture that’s why we make sure we can incorporate Borge and African culture with a little bit of the western world in order to make every customer not feel left behind but to enjoy this experience and excitement and hard work we put into our products. Our products are all handmade by the CEO herself, Annie is born and raised in Ghana she’s been doing beads since she was 9 and has loved them ever since. making beads comes with a rhythm that you can be using one pattern and change it just to give that bead it’s own mark or uniqueness of its own(soronko) .She learnt this artwork from her aunt and begun to start her beads in 2017. Annie keeps striving for more and keeps working harder everyday to make sure her customers are happy.  We also trying to expand into natural Shea butter and authentic carvings from West                                                                                  Africa and around the world.