Grenada’s Gem
LISA’S JEWELRY
ll over the world, Grenada is known as the spice isle of the Caribbean.Famous for that small dark brown nugget of pungent, aromatic natural goodness, Nutmeg, which will transform anything it ‘touches’ – from evening cocktails to comforting stews. These days however Grenada is fast becoming known for another little nugget offered up by its volcanic depths, ‘Grenadite’. Grenadite is a semi precious stone, first discovered within Grenada’s volcanic structures and used by the island’s indigenous Kalinago people. Today, Grenadite is the new name given to the semi precious stone only found in Grenada. This extraordinary story and fast growing jewelry business begins with Eva Kachelreiss, the German born creative force behind the St George’s based jewelry company called ‘Lisa’s’, who fell in love with Grenada on a holiday back in 1995. The story goes that on the last day of an enjoyable, long over due Spa holiday, Eva and her husband, bought a small property on a
A
Sterling Silver, Mother of Pearl & Grenadite necklace
the green stone the same green stone that we are using now.” Eva explains “The Kalinago’s had a different name for the stone, and because it is difficult to pronounce, we were given permission to rename the stone, “Grenadite”, meaning jewel from Grenada. “We are working now on it being certified as the National stone of Grenada... Grenadians can be very proud of having such a treasure. After managing their production of jewelry from Germany for two years, Lisa’s was eventually established in 1996 as a Grenadian Company in a small unit in St. Georges. “We came with 2 containers 2 cats 2 dogs and a one way Eva Kachelreiss - ‘Lisa’s’ inspirational designer & CEO ticket. We had lots of experience in Germany with jewelry. Few countries are blessed with such treasures whim. They had no immediate plans, but the as we have here. We are the only ones German tradition of staying rooted in history that we know of that are making jewelry coupled with their previous experience in with Grenadite,” Eva says. “We first heard jewelry design would all help to later launch of the stone in 2003 and we did a lot of ‘Lisa’s’. But the most significant part of the investigations. A Professor, Dr. Ari was puzzle, would be in Grenada’s deep history of visiting Grenada from Leiden University in its indigenous Kalinago people. the Netherlands and was looking for artifacts, “In Germany you are taught in school so we shared ours with him, he is a specialist all about German history going back for thousands of years - When we came to Grenada we was missing this part, it seemed that no one really knew about what happened a 1,000 years ago. History seemed to start with Christopher Columbus. We went into the Grenada Museum and there was a room filled with old books and documents, the Governor General writes to the King... “We found that Grenada had a very rich history before Christopher Columbus, with the Kalinagos.” “We discovered that the Kalinagos were Gold ‘Sign of Life’ on Grenadite jewelry makers in Grenada and they used www.businessgrenada.com
76