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WILD at HEART Kenya, Nairobi (2026)

14/02/2023

Sometimes, you’re walking in the middle of nowhere in the bush and you come across a really good one of these! And then, after one or two, loads more seem to find you — and in all sizes … pretty much like in life I suppose 😉💚😘

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19/12/2022

… well, do you 🤔? and does your dog know that too 😉..? If so, then wowzers do we* have the exact collar for you — both! 😃

Our unique design was created especially for WILD at HEART Kenya by artist Jenifer Corker. Jenifer also created our exclusive design which supports the exceptional work of the Wild at Heart Foundation, helping rescue dogs to find their forever home.

All our designs are beaded by Kenyan artisans who work from home, meaning that they can do the beading in their own time, without changing their normal family life. The beaded leather pieces are then hand-finished by a specialist leather workshop; all the buckles are hand-made too, cast from recycled brass. 💚

*Beware of copies! Our design is the original one, and obviously the best 😉🤍

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16/12/2022

Unlike the Samburu ‘olekiripa’ neckpieces which are sets of graduated, flat or dished shapes made to fit together and curved down over the women’s shoulders, the Turkana people have a very different style. The beadwork a Turkana lady wears is considered to be very much part of her ‘beauty’ (ie. ‘appeal’, as considered by the men of the community). The complete necklace can be made up of individual strands which create a high stack of beads from shoulders to ears (as the lady on the right has), or, many strands of smaller sized beads are wired together to create a similar effect, but are put on and taken off all in one go (as has the lady on the left). Both have the look of a sort of beaded Elizabethan ruff, completely covering the neck right up to the chin; except being made of solid glass beads and galvanised wire, these extraordinary neckpieces can weigh around 5 kilos.

I also noticed the lady on the right had an aluminium drink can ring-pull on one of her earrings. Recycling of the most stylish kind… 😉👌💚

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11/12/2022

Today’s Star Dog is the rescue poppet Caramel — I mean just LOOK at that gorgeous colour, what else could you possibly call her?! Best friend of Skyla, she also lives with Meghan & David. And, how DOES she do that with just one ear..? 🤔
😍Likes: All food (she’s a scavenger!), hiking in the mountains, playing with dogs, performing her repertoire of tricks
🤮Dislikes: Grooming & water!
😴Favourite place to sleep: In the humans bed
😋Favourite food/s: Toast, but generally eats everything, including any medicine/pills & vegetables!
👩Favourite human: Meghan – she’s a mummy’s girl
🏃‍♀️Favourite exercise and/or place to go for walks: She loves long walks in the Lake District
💕Best friend: Her canine sibling, Skyla
🙉When does the Star Dog have “selective hearing” (e.g. when they see a squirrel and ignore you COMPLETELY!): Around rabbits. Also foxes, we have to be careful about letting her off lead around foxes, she’d chase them for miles!
🌟What makes this Star Dog unique: You could never replicate her due to mixed street dog genetics, we always get asked what breed she is and it’s nice knowing there will only ever be one of her (except her 4 other siblings, but they all look quite different!)
❤️‍🩹How did the Star Dog come to be with their human/owner? She was rescued from the island of Lesvos, Greece, at around 3 weeks old when she was found with her siblings dumped in a cardboard box on the street. She was put up for adoption on Wild at Heart Foundation and Meghan came across her photos and asked to adopt her. She made the long journey to the UK and the rest is history!

😊A donation from every one of these beautiful collars goes directly to support the Wild at Heart Foundation’s work to find more rescue dogs their forever home. Our exclusive design was created by artist Jenifer Corker 💚

📸 thank you Meghan

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10/12/2022

Meetings under trees…beadwork in progress 😅 These collars have been finished by the beaders, collected up, and brought to an appointed tree by motorbike, from the artisans at their manyattas. A manyatta is a home settlement or compound, often temporary, made out of thorn trees and other bushes, where the families and clans of semi-nomadic pastoralist communities live. If it’s rained and there’s plenty of grass for the livestock, the Samburu, Ndorobo and Maasai who live in this way will stay put for a time. As I can’t find them on my own in the landscape, I rely on one person who keeps track of where they are. If it’s not been raining (as it hasn’t been, these past few months) families will move to areas where they can find more grass and water. As it’s been so dry, for the foreseeable future the livestock of this group of artisans is about 20kms from the manyattas, so after walking to phone signal, we arrange to meet by text somewhere in the middle. It’s usually pretty easy to find each other in the area — whoever gets there first simply chooses the tree with the best shade to wait under…

The artisans who create the WILD at HEART Kenya designs work from home, in their own time, as they need to fit the beadwork around their daily lives. These beaded collars (and Phone Finders) are for a special customer who will sell the collars to support a wild dog conservation project.

Our beautiful “I 🤍 MY DOG” collars were specially designed by artist Jenifer Corker.

When you purchase any of our beaded designs, you are directly supporting pastoralist women, wildlife and conservation efforts. We like to make extra hard-working beadwork 😅💚

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04/12/2022

Today’s Star Dog is the beautiful story every rescue dog needing a forever home should have. Aww. We just love ones like this — and who doesn’t eh? Sigh 🥰
🐶Star Dog full name: Skyla
👩‍❤️‍👨Human/owner’s name: Meghan & David (— who got engaged last week just btw!!! 💘)
😍Likes: FOOD! Sleeping, being fussed over, having a cuddle on the sofa
🤮Dislikes: Busy/noisy places, vegetables
😴Favourite place to sleep: Sofa
😋Favourite food/s: Meaty treats & cheese
👩Favourite human: Skyla is wary/aloof with strangers but the most loyal dog to those she knows. She loves both her humans equally (but seems to listen more to Meghan!)
🏃‍♀️Favourite exercise and/or place to go for walks: The daily river walk next to our house
💖Best friend: Her canine sibling, Caramel
🙉When does the Star Dog have “selective hearing” (e.g. when they see a squirrel and ignore you COMPLETELY!): She has a very high prey drive so we can’t let her off lead in the woods!
👂What makes this Star Dog unique: Her ears are quite magnificent!
🌟How did the Star Dog come to be with their human/owner? Meghan visited Skyla’s shelter in Greece in September 2019. Skyla was incredibly nervous and hated shelter life, and stayed circling at the back of her pen… Meghan couldn’t leave her there so asked to foster her in order to build up her confidence & find her a forever home…she settled in very quickly with us and we all fell in love with her so she never left! 💞

😊A donation from every one of these beautiful collars goes directly to support the Wild at Heart Foundation’s work to find more rescue dogs their forever home. Our exclusive design was created by artist Jenifer Corker 💚

📸 thank you Meghan

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03/12/2022

On the road: cat shopping 😉 and beadwork research in Maralal; a shady dog in Baragoi… This lady in the Maralal bead market showed me the technique she uses to finish her beaded belts. The beadwork is made as an intricate, single panel separate to the leather belt, and while the belt is stretched taut between the ends of a bow-like croton bush (I think) stick, she can sew the beadwork on neatly along the edges. 🪡

Generally in full daily admiration of this indomitable Toyota Land Cruiser which seems to be able to go over, through, up and down virtually anything I throw it at 👌💚

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02/12/2022

Decisions decisions…of course, we just want to buy Every.Single.Fabric. and Edward is so good at finding the ones with nature references: planets/atoms (?), irises (?), leaves, shells, feathers, fungi, grasses… All our beaded belts and collars come with a beautifully made (French seams, oh yes👌) drawstring bags, making the belts and collars an instant gift 🎁 😁sewn by Grace. I try to get the ones with the circles as they reference beads, but, you know, may end up with a few more 🙄 …so that’s why we make the fold-up shopping bags to sell too 😅💚

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14/11/2022

Did you know that tomorrow is an unprecedented landmark for the human species, and our planet? November 15th is the day when the UN predicts that world population passes the 8 billion mark for the first time. And ironically (?!) November 16th is the biodiversity theme day, at COP27.

Maybe worth a ponder on what your life may have been like, if you’d not had access to healthcare, family planning and contraception… And why do I think about this in relation to WILD at HEART Kenya? I definitely have the (3am-type 😳) worries about species extinction, although since Covid I often wonder if we should be more worried about the sudden extinction of humans 🤔

As a miniscule cog in such a huge wheel, via WILD at HEART Kenya, being able to even start bringing the tiniest bit of autonomy, and even choice, to the extraordinary artisans who create our beadwork means that these ladies can begin to have an opportunity to consider choices that they may not have had before. And for you, our audience and customers, please know that you’re not just choosing a new beaded belt, or a beaded collar for your beloved dog; you are very much part of this story which helps to bring each artisan a little more awareness and choice into her and her family’s life. Or, you will be assisting in funding rabies vaccinations for domestic dogs and cats which not only helps to protect wild dogs (when they occasionally cross paths), but also protects other canids, plus, prevents rabies in humans. Around 7 people a day die in Kenya because of rabies. Or, your new dog collar will help a rescue dog find their forever home.

All of these stories to come…but in the meantime, thank you to those who do what they can to create a more positive future for women, wildlife and all of our tomorrows. That’s quite some motivation for us — for Mondays, Tuesday 15th November 2022, and every day 🦏💚

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27/10/2022

These rainbow stripes dog collars are actually our very best selling dog collars 😁 But! They aren’t ONLY dog collars… All the designs we make, including our dog collars, are created to directly support artisan women and wildlife conservation in Kenya. Especially if you live in Australia: watch this space, because as of TODAY, these exact collars (and more gorgeous colours 😉) are on their way to you! We have a new partnership coming up which supports a very special population of Wild Dogs in Kenya — a fascinating conservation story… If you have a dog and love wildlife and Wild Dogs too, then these are going to be the collars for you. We’ll let you know ASAP when they’re available online! 😊💚

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Model Baloo courtesy of 🖤

15/05/2022

🌟It’s Sunday, and that means it’s Star Dog interview time! This week, we have the beautiful, if rather eccentric, rescue whippet pup Otis. Supremely cuddly, yet when faced with an empty cardboard box, he can turn into a rabid savage in order to save his humans from this dastardly threat. Yes.

🙋🏻‍♀️Human/owner’s name: Phoebe
😀Likes: Posing; anything and everything regarding food — he’s a gannet and would steal your grandmother if he was hungry enough
🙁Dislikes: Being left alone; not being allowed into your bed; cold showers after going in the sea
😴Favourite place to sleep: In your arms — he’s as cuddly as anything, and can go to sleep in any position if he’s being cuddled
😋Favourite food/s: Everything, there’s nothing that’s been discounted yet
🥰Favourite human: Phoebe
🏃🏻‍♀️Favourite exercise and/or place to go for walks: He just enjoys hanging out with his (fellow whippet) mate Ransome — they prefer the fields and woods rather than the beach because there’s more smells going on (such as: fox poo, yikes)
💘Best friend: Ransome
🙉When does the Star Dog have “selective hearing” (e.g. when they see a squirrel and ignore you COMPLETELY!): Otis has superb recall; although that’s not been fully tested yet as he’s just got bold enough to go across the field without you. Unfortunately the word NO means nothing to him — he doesn’t even acknowledge the concept
🐶What makes this Star Dog unique: He looks at you like he loves you and with such gratefulness. He gets his pointy nose into everything. The nose knows no boundaries…
💝How did the Star Dog come to be with their human/owner? Otis was only briefly with Whippet Rescue as he was picked up by his new human an hour after being delivered. He’s settled into our home like he was born here. He’s about 8 months old, and was a lockdown puppy sadly rejected by owners who had never had a dog before. But, lucky for us! 🤗

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27/04/2022

Meanwhile, in Samburu…the miracle twins 🐘🐘 born in January this year continue to defy all odds! Last seen in March, the duo was recently spotted again, alive and well in Samburu by Shivani Bhalla of Ewaso Lions. Elephant twins rarely survive in the wild so we are delighted by this good news. Well done to Bora, whose excellent mothering skills have enabled her calves to survive this far, especially with the drought conditions this year 💚

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Via
🎥 by Shivani Bhalla /

WILD at HEART Kenya

14/02/2023

19/12/2022

16/12/2022

11/12/2022

10/12/2022

04/12/2022

03/12/2022

02/12/2022

14/11/2022

27/10/2022

15/05/2022

27/04/2022

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