Garden Jewellery — Handmade Recycled Glass That Lives Outdoors
Glass that catches light the way nothing painted or plastic ever does. Each piece in this collection is handmade by Kitengela artisans from recycled scrap glass — melted, shaped, coloured, and cooled in the Kenyan sun before it ever touches a garden fence, a gate, or a tree branch.
Garden jewellery (or garden jewelry, as US buyers search for it) is not a delicate indoor thing. It is built for the outdoors deliberately. The jua kali ethos — Swahili for 'fierce sun' — runs through everything Kitengela makes: materials chosen to hold up, colours that stay true in full sun and rain, designs that work whether the garden is in Nairobi or New England.
The same artisans who make this collection produce Kitengela's handmade glass jewellery worn as personal accessories — the craft is identical; the scale and purpose are different.
What Garden Jewellery Is
Garden jewellery is a collection of handmade recycled glass pieces designed to hang outdoors — from fences, gates, branches, pergolas, wall hooks, or anywhere you want colour and moving light. Each individual piece is a blown or cast glass element: a plate, a single ball, a double ball, a triple ball, or an end piece. Strung together in combinations of your choice, they form strands that move in wind and throw coloured light across whatever surface is behind them.
Sizes vary by piece. Strands can be built up to 7 metres long. The sections are modular — you choose what goes where, in what order, in whatever combination of colours suits the space.
How It Works — The Lego Logic
Think of it like Lego. Each section — plate, one ball, two ball, three ball, or end piece — connects to the next. You mix and match whatever combination you want, in any available colour, up to 7 metres in a single continuous strand.
You can order individual sections and assemble the strand yourself. Or choose a pre-assembled 'strand of the week' selection — a curated colour combination that Kitengela has already put together.
If you prefer your glass to hang indoors or as a room divider, glass bead curtains from the same studio use the same bead-making craft at a finer, more intricate scale.
Built for Outdoors — Jua Kali by Design
Kitengela Glass has been making pieces for outdoor use since the early 1990s. From the start, Nani Croze and the studio's artisans chose materials that hold up in the Kenyan climate — full sun, direct rain, heat. The result is a design approach built around durability without losing colour.
Recycled glass holds colour differently from painted or coated surfaces. The colour is in the glass itself — not sitting on top of it. Pieces left outdoors for years remain visually consistent. Wire and fittings used in the strands are selected for outdoor exposure.
For larger outdoor glass installations — walls, gates, and full fence runs — Kitengela's funky fencing and garden sculpture collection uses the same recycled glass in structural outdoor applications.
Every piece starts as scrap. How Kitengela recycles scrap glass into finished art — including garden jewellery — is part of a process the studio has been running since the early 1990s, now processing over 500kg of waste glass every working day.
A Gift Worth Giving
Garden jewellery works as a gift because it is specific. It is not a candle or a voucher. It is a handmade object from a studio that has been doing this for over forty years, made from recycled glass, designed to stay in someone's garden indefinitely. Gardeners tend to remember what they put outside and where it came from.
Strands can be colour-customised to specific preferences — contact info@kitengela.glass before ordering with your requirements. Standard colours are shown in the product listings. Custom colour combinations carry a 2-3 week lead time.
For a ready-to-give option, glass gift sets from Kitengela combine garden jewellery and other studio pieces in curated selections.
Custom Orders and Sizing
Standard strands available online run from approximately 90cm to 147cm. For longer runs — full fence sections, gate spans, or architectural applications — contact us with the dimensions needed. Strands can be built to any length up to 7 metres.
Email: info@kitengela.glass
Call or WhatsApp: +254 11 000 1499 | +254 11 600 1133
We ship worldwide. Standard order lead time is 1-2 weeks from payment. Custom colour or length orders: 2-3 weeks. All pieces are individually handmade from recycled glass in small batches and will differ slightly from photographs — this is not a defect; it is the nature of handmade glass.