Age 12
An Entrepreneur Is Born
I made and sold beaded jewelry, merging my creativity and entrepreneurship for the first time.
Our Story
Live Beautifully
A beautiful life should not be postponed.
Life is meant to be lived, not waited for. Wear the jewelry. Take the trip. Eat the cake.
Choose what brings you joy and allow beauty, culture, pleasure and self-expression to become part of the life you are living now.
Adorned by Abena began with a love story
An Intimate Expression of Love and Self-Recognition
While preparing to marry my Ghanaian husband, he mentioned how beautiful he found waist beads. The lover girl in me could not resist surprising him.
But when I tied them around my own waist, I saw myself differently. They made me feel sexy, more feminine and beautifully connected to my body.
What began as an intimate expression of love for my husband became something deeply personal—an experience of adornment that belonged to me, too.
Transformation
Movement, Waist Beads & Becoming
With time, my waist beads became part of my body transformation.
As I lost weight, they began to fall lower on my waist, quietly revealing progress the scale did not always show. They became an intimate form of body awareness—a gentle way to notice myself, honor my progress and stay connected to my body as it changed.
Adornment becomes more than decoration. It becomes part of a woman’s relationship with herself—a way to express the many parts of who she is and who she is becoming.
A Lifelong Love
Returning to Beadwork Is Returning Home.
My story with beadwork predates my journey to Ghana.
Jewelry and adornment have continued to call me back across different seasons and continents—each time inviting me to create with more intention, more experience and more of myself.
Age 20-Something
For the Love of Beads
Fascinated by the endless possibilities of glass beads, I returned to beadwork—this time making and selling glass bracelets.
Sterling Bijoux
Color, Crystal & Glamour
I launched a new jewelry business as my aesthetic moved toward colorful crystals, pavé and bold, fashion-forward pieces.
Adorned by Abena
More Intention. More Beads. More Me.
Years later, I created Adorned by Abena to invite women into my world of love, beads and culture.
The Legacy Continues
A Fourth-Generation Entrepreneur
The desire to build something of my own was passed down.
My great-grandmother and grandmother were both entrepreneurs. My mother is also a business owner and nonprofit founder.
The women before me shaped how I understand independence, creativity, beauty and the desire to continue building. Adorned by Abena is my expression of that lineage—guided by my vision and intended to outlive the season in which it began.
Beauty, Passed Down
The Woman I Became
My grandmother was one of my earliest examples of elegance—beautiful, polished and refined, not only in what she wore but in the standard she carried.
Today, I wear her rings as my wedding rings. Something that once adorned her now rests on my hands as I create, love and build a life of my own.
That is heirloom to me: memory, beauty and identity carried forward from one woman to another.
A Beautiful Bridge to Ghana
Love, Belonging and Creative Language
Ghana became part of my story through love and a sense of belonging, later emerging as the foundation of my creative language.
On my next visit, I learned to make traditional Ghanaian waist beads and moved through Makola Market selecting beads and materials. Surrounded by color, sparkle and possibility, I felt like a child in a candy store. Some beads were bold and captivating; others were soft and demure. Each color offered a different way for a woman to express herself.
Through Adorned by Abena, I honor Ghana as a living culture—a place of artistry, tradition, welcome and belonging, and a beautiful point of connection throughout the African diaspora.
At Our Heart
The Moon and Star
Osram Ne Nsoromma
Osram Ne Nsoromma is a West African Adinkra symbol rooted in Akan culture and traditionally associated with love, faithfulness and the enduring bond of marriage.
Chosen as the symbol at the heart of Adorned by Abena, it represents values woven into the very beginning of our story.
Rooted in culture. Designed with love.
Craftsmanship & Materials
The Beauty Is in the Details
Every design begins with intention. From color, scale and finish to pattern, form and how a piece feels when worn, the smallest choices shape the experience of the entire collection.
Materials
Glass seed beads, crystal accents and Ghanaian elements such as Krobo glass are selected for beauty, character and cultural connection.
Construction
Each piece is created or curated with attention to balance, flexibility, proportion, wearability and the way every detail works together.
Quality
Care is part of the aesthetic. Every design is considered, tested and refined because what adorns a woman should be made with thought and intention.
Beyond the Beads
A World Designed for Living Beautifully
Waist beads are where the story began, but they were never meant to be the boundary.
What began with waist beads has evolved into a Ghanaian-inspired lifestyle brand rooted in adornment, cultural connection, beautiful experiences and the art of living beautifully.
Jewelry, feminine wellness, meaningful rituals, cultural experiences and travel are not disconnected categories. Each one is another way to help a woman feel more connected to herself, to culture and to the life she wants to experience.
The Adorned Woman
Becoming More Fully Herself
Adorned by Abena is for the woman becoming more fully herself while making room to enjoy the woman she already is.
She may be rebuilding, expanding, softening or stepping into a new season. She is moving from stifled to expansive—more connected, embodied, expressive and intentional in how she lives.
She chooses what brings her joy and allows beauty, culture, pleasure and self-expression to become part of the life she is living now.
She is not waiting to become someone new. She is remembering who she has always been.
Meet Lovisa
Creator. Storyteller. Curator.
I’m Lovisa "Abena" Yirenkyi, Founder & Jewelry Designer of Adorned by Abena.
My professional path has not been linear, but the thread running through it has always been creation. I am drawn to color, beauty, storytelling, meaningful experiences and the possibilities that emerge when they are brought together thoughtfully.
Adorned by Abena is both an expression of who I have always been and an invitation for me to become more—to trust my eye, deepen my craft, honor my ideas and build a world large enough to hold the fullness of my vision.
I am creating it one bead, one story and one beautiful experience at a time.
You’re Invited
Enter a World of Love, Beads & Culture.
Begin with the beads that started it all.
Adorn yourself. Honor the season you are in. Make more room for beauty in the life you are living now.