By: Staff Writer
October 15, 2021
This Bahamian jewellery maker got one chance to create her pieces for a destination wedding nearly two decades ago and has morphed into a thriving international business.
Tenisha Carey, owner/operator of Baha Gala in Freeport, Grand Bahama, told Caribbean Magazine Plus that she was always making jewellery for family and friends from the raw materials around her, particularly corals and other natural gemstones native to the Caribbean. However, she got her big break some 16 years ago when a friend asked her to create jewellery for a “destination wedding” and then she said to herself that she may as well go into jewellery making professionally.
Tenisha said, “I grew up in fashion and I used to model. I just started making jewellery for myself and persons just basically saying they want a piece and I would just give it to them for free. Then that was the start of making orders and I was doing it for free.
“One day, my mom was like, you realize you need to start charging people for this. My thing was I don’t know how to charge people for something I love to do and then that was all she wrote.”
“I got my first wedding and then it just went from there. It was actually a destination wedding with tourists.”
The “strange thing” about this wedding was that a friend of the wedding party saw one of Tenisha’s pieces online and reached out to her after it was shared by the person who she created the piece for, free of charge.
This shows you that once you have a talent and like what you do, do it anyway and the way will be made straight for you. The rewards may not come right away, but do what you like to do. It will only sharpen your skillset.
Tenisha also said: “I opened by first store in downtown Nassau and my second store was on West Bay Street, but I got married five years ago and followed my husband to Grand Bahama where he is from and so I opened up a store in the Rayvin Mall in Freeport.”
The Rayvin Mall store just opened this April and sales could be better but because of the COVID-19 pandemic it is understandable, but Tenisha relies more on online sales anyway as she said “80 percent of my sales are online.”
What do people buy from Baha Gala? Tenisha said: “I incorporate natural materials including the mother pearl which is from the shell, so I do a lot of mother a pearl and a lot of natural shells.
“I do the Poinciana seeds the tamarind seeds and of course the authentic the human coins, they’re the most popular.
“Because all of my jewellery can be personalized and when you walk into my store I have a showcase of beads. So you can actually choose your beads as whatever you like because I’m your personal designer. But the the coin jewellery which I was doing long before Pandora was is basically the same style, but I swapped it over because then Pandora started doing something similar-not because they’re copying me- but I saw they were doing something similar so I decided to change my links and so forth.
“But customers can choose from over 200 charms and coins and hey can personalize their own bracelet earring necklace or tiaras, I also do crowns.”
She continued, “I do sea fans like I said a lot of pink fans, but I do mostly natural materials. I do incorporate gemstones and freshwater pearls, turquoise and so forth. But my base is basically everything is natural.”
These fresh water pearls and corals are produced at a coral farm in China, because Tenisha is a member of the Bahamas National Trust so anything that disturbs the natural environs of the Bahamian fauna and flora.
