He makes beads from stale bread

Daniel Onyait. A lesson by the rubbish bin changed Onyait’s life forever. There he saw how garbage can be given a new life, a much better one than it had before.

Since the invention of sliced bread, there has only been so much that you can do with a breakfast gone bad, two things actually; throw in the trash or once in a while feed it to a badly behaved cat. That was until now.

In Seeta, hardly 20 kilometers from the city, an artist has brought to the table an incredible way to put stale bread to use. Daniel Onyait makes beads out of stale bread. Surprised? Yes, the beads you probably wear on a mundane work day or to an African themed event oblivious of its origins.

I went to his home to see how this peculiar idea was birthed and how reject breakfast can be transformed into regal jewellery. “My passion for art started way back in 2001,” the 27-year-old recalls, “when I was in my second year in secondary school.” He adds that while at Naalya Secondary School Namugongo; the school he was attending at the time, he used to admire the artwork of those in the higher classes and most especially that of the art teacher, Stephen Kibuuka.

“His (Kibuuka’s) works and his love for the students attracted me to pick art as an optional subject when the time came in Senior Three. It was then that I realised that I was actually good at art,” he recalls. With that realisation, he decided to take on art even in his A- level; a decision he did not regret. “I was so good that even at finals, I scored an A!” Onyait proudly says. This ushered him to Kyambogo University, the place in which the beads idea was birthed.

The lessons by the bin
Onyait pursued a Bachelors of Vocational Studies in Art and Design with Education while at Kyambogo. It was in this class that he studied under a lecture called Henry Mujjuzi. “One particular lesson,” Onyait recalls “he (Mujjuzi) took us out of the class to the rubbish heap. He told us to pick up bottles in which paint would be filled. Though I hated the idea at first, his continuous referrals to the trash heap made me start thinking of ways to put rubbish to use.” One may not realise but it is this paint in bottles that was used to make a children’s play park, a story the Daily Monitor covered last year.

A breakfast gone beautiful
“One morning while at hostel,” Onyait recalls, “I prepared myself breakfast only to find that the bread that I had bought the previous evening had gone stale. I was busy getting my pieces ready for exhibitions and I was too busy to take the bread back to get fresh bread in exchange.”

In the midst of a messy room, Onyait got a pinch of the bread and added wood glue to make a strong adhesive for one of his wall paintings. “The mixture of the two made a substance that could be molded at will to make any shape before it dried and hardened. So instead of dumping it in the bin, I rushed it to the drawing board so to speak,” he says.

After a while of playing around with the bread molds, Onyait realised that with just a little paint, they could be molded into adorable beads of different colours. “It was at this point that I didn’t look back. I even decided to present these beads for my upcoming exhibition.”

Because this was not the point of concern for the lecturers at the time, Daniel postponed the bead making to holiday time. “I did not even consider doing it commercially. People would just see and admire and it would stop at that.”

The life changing trip to Nigeria
While at Kyambogo, Onyait joined a Dutch founded exchange program named AIESEC. This programme linked his university to the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria. “I was among the four Ugandan students who were picked to work in Nigeria.”

The Nigerian University linked two of the students, him inclusive to Showers International, a Christian High School in which they were to do a yearlong internship. “I was actually taken to teach ICT but after seeing my incredible skill in art, Mrs Akpan Ekama Emilia, the school’s M.D transferred me to the arts department.”
While there, he also displayed the beads and their creation process to the students, an idea that thrilled not only them but the entire administration prompting them to offer him a job at the school. “However, at the end of my year there, I declined the offer and decided to return to my home where I set my focus on art full time.”

The Jack of the Eco-Art trade
Onyait does not stop at making beads from spoilt bread. He also uses computer scrap to make adorable abstract wall art! Basically, his resource is the trashcan. “I make sure the computer is beyond repair before I use it,” he adds. It is therefore arguably true that he has opened a new page as pertains to eco art not only in Uganda, but also the world.

“I also do wall paintings and drawings. I have a hand in impressionist art and sculpture pieces.” This was very evident as on the day of the interview, his home had the impression of a multi artist exhibition, with even beautifully designed T-shirts and bark cloth and cowry shell art.

There is endless more to this man, like the fact that he does professional aerobics and dance choreography, but the fact that he can take what is not fit for a kitchen table and skillfully make it one of your dressing table accessories is nothing short of astonishing.

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com