The O Bracelets

Crocheted Amethyst, Designed by FWT Artist Mary Fisher, $330

All the beaders who lived through the 1994 genocide reported that gathering to make O jewelry helped their emotional recovery. When they're sitting together working, eventually their troubles slip out and they start sharing their stories, which provides not only relief from the deep isolation they live in but also a slow realization that the "enemy" is actually their sister. "Some of us are Tutsi survivors, others are Hutus, but we've gone past the divide of ethnicity," says one 45-year-old widow who lost five of her children and gained a daughter when she was raped during the slaughter; both she and the girl were left HIV positive. "Before, I was nothing. Now I see myself on the same level as a government functionary because I earn as much as they do."