Today we’d like to introduce you to Yakini Branch.
Hi Yakini, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My story with bead weaving began when I was about sixteen or seventeen years old. At the time, I was living in a women’s shelter, and someone there taught me the basic foundation of the craft. I could not have known then how important that introduction would become or how deeply beads would remain woven into my life.
My journey has not been a straight line. I have lived in different places, experienced many transitions, raised children, worked in service to others, and moved through seasons that required me to rebuild myself again and again. Through it all, creativity continued to return to me. Bead weaving became more than something beautiful that I could make with my hands. It became a form of meditation, a way to regulate my nervous system, a spiritual practice, and a language through which I could express things that words could not always hold.
Around 2007, I began devoting myself more seriously to the art. Over the years, I studied different stitches and techniques, practiced patiently, and allowed my own design language to emerge. Some of my earlier work was created by following patterns while I learned, but with time and experience, I became able to create original pieces without a pattern. Today, I consider myself a master bead weaver—not because there is nothing left for me to learn, but because I have developed a deep relationship with the art and can allow a design to reveal itself bead by bead.
Garden of the Sun grew from that relationship. The name is connected to PerShaRa, an initiation name I received, and it represents much more than a jewelry business to me. Garden of the Sun is a creative and spiritual space where beauty, patience, intention, healing, and development meet. I create intentional beaded art, adornments, amulets, and accessories, often using layered beadwork, sacred geometry, gemstones, crystals, cowrie shells, and other meaningful elements. Many of my designs are one of a kind, and even when inspiration begins with something I have seen, the final piece becomes my own through the colors, structure, symbolism, and spirit I bring to it.
I especially love sharing the process of creation. I share the loose beads, the first fragile foundation, the mistakes, the layers, and the gradual becoming—not only the finished piece. To me, every stage is art. The process teaches us that something does not have to begin magnificently in order to become meaningful. Creation often begins with a small act of devotion and grows through patience, attention, and continued care.
I also love creating for others. When someone asks me to make a piece but gives me room to interpret their desire, I consider that co-creation. They bring the invitation, and I bring my experience, intuition, and imagination. There are levels to this process, and each piece has its own journey.
Today, Garden of the Sun includes my original beadwork as well as beading instruction, astrology readings, and Sacred Path consultations. My larger vision is to create courses, books, and spaces where people—especially children—can learn bead weaving not only as a technical skill, but as a practice of patience, focus, self-trust, rhythm, and completion. I also dream of establishing a physical Garden of the Sun: a beautiful container where people can gather, create, learn, receive support, and experience beauty with intention.
I have come to understand that I am the first Garden of the Sun. It is something I carry within me, and everything I create grows from that inner field. The business is the outward expression of a much deeper journey—one that continues to teach me how to honor the becoming, live the beauty, live the love, and live the ecstasy.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has definitely not been a smooth road, but I have learned that a road does not have to be smooth in order to be sacred or meaningful.
I was introduced to bead weaving when I was about sixteen or seventeen years old while living in a women’s shelter. At that time, I was already learning how to survive, adapt, and create a sense of stability for myself. I did not begin with financial resources, a business plan, or a clear path before me. I began with beads, thread, my hands, and a willingness to learn.
Throughout my life, I have experienced many transitions, including living in different countries, raising my children, navigating painful family and relationship experiences, and rebuilding after periods of instability. There were seasons when survival had to come before creativity. There were also times when I had the vision but did not yet have the resources, support, time, or confidence to bring that vision fully into form.
One of my greatest challenges has been learning how to honor my creative work while also meeting the practical responsibilities of everyday life. I currently work a full-time job serving people in a men’s emergency shelter, and much of my artwork is created before work, after work, on weekends, or in small pockets of time. Building Garden of the Sun while working and managing other responsibilities has required patience, consistency, and a great deal of devotion.
There have also been challenges that many independent artists experience: learning the business side of creativity, building a website, photographing my work, setting prices, marketing myself, and helping people understand the time and skill involved in handwoven art. A finished piece may appear delicate and effortless, but it can contain many hours of concentrated labor, multiple layers of beadwork, and years of knowledge. Learning to value my work properly—and to communicate that value to others—has been part of my growth.
Another struggle has been moving beyond perfectionism and the idea that I must have everything figured out before I share what I am doing. That is one reason I openly share my works in progress. I want people to see that becoming is not always polished. In the beginning, a piece may be fragile, uneven, or difficult to understand. It often needs additional layers and support before its full form is revealed. I have realized that human beings are very much the same.
Bead weaving has helped me move through many of these challenges. It taught me that I do not have to force the entire vision into existence at once. I only need to remain present with the bead, the stitch, and the decision before me. Over time, those small acts of attention become something strong, intricate, and beautiful.
The struggles have shaped both me and Garden of the Sun. They taught me that patience can replace domination, creation can replace depletion, and beauty can coexist with truth. I do not want my story to suggest that difficulty automatically becomes beautiful, because some experiences are genuinely painful. However, I have learned that I can decide what I create from what I have lived through. Garden of the Sun is one of the things I have chosen to create.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My professional life as an artist and creative is rooted in the understanding that creativity is not separate from the rest of my life. It is part of how I think, how I heal, how I teach, how I solve problems, and how I understand the world around me.
As a bead-weaving artist, I create intentional and spiritual beaded art, adornments, amulets, and accessories through Garden of the Sun. My work often incorporates seed beads of different sizes, crystals, gemstones, cowrie shells, cabochons, and other meaningful elements. I especially enjoy combining colors, textures, layers, and geometric forms to create pieces that feel alive and carry their own presence.
Much of my work is created without a pattern. I may begin with a particular bead, color, shape, feeling, or spiritual idea and allow the design to develop as I work. Sometimes I can see the finished piece clearly in my mind, while at other times the beads lead me gradually toward the final form. This requires a balance between structure and freedom. I must understand the technical foundation well enough to support the design while remaining open to what wants to emerge.
Attention to detail is one of the strongest qualities I bring to my work. A slight change in bead size, color, placement, or tension can affect the entire design. I enjoy this level of precision because it reminds me that every element has a purpose. Even the smallest bead contributes to the strength and beauty of the whole.
My professional practice also includes commissioned work. When someone asks me to create something for them, I experience it as co-creation. The person may bring an idea, a color, a symbol, or simply a desire for something beautiful, and I interpret that invitation through my own artistic language. I love being trusted to create in this way because the result often becomes something neither of us could have imagined alone.
Teaching is also an important part of my path. I do not only want people to learn how to complete a beaded object. I want them to experience what the process can teach them about patience, focus, rhythm, self-trust, problem-solving, and completion. Bead weaving asks us to slow down, remain present, and build something one small decision at a time. Those lessons can extend far beyond the artwork itself.
I am also committed to documenting and sharing the creative process. I photograph the beads before they become a piece, the early foundation while it is still fragile, the different layers as they are added, and the finished creation. I call this honoring the becoming. I believe the process deserves to be witnessed because it makes art more human and reminds others that mastery is developed through practice rather than instant perfection.
Although bead weaving is central to my creative career, Garden of the Sun holds an even larger vision. My professional work also includes astrology readings and Sacred Path consultations, which allow me to help others recognize patterns, possibilities, and meaning within their own lives. In time, I envision Garden of the Sun expanding into courses, books, beading schools for children, and a physical creative space where people can learn, gather, make art, and reconnect with themselves.
For me, being an artist is not only about producing beautiful objects. It is about creating conditions where beauty, truth, patience, and transformation can exist together. Every piece I make is part of that larger work.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Something that may surprise people is that an important part of my spiritual and creative development took place in Burkina Faso, West Africa, through my involvement with The Earth Center.
I traveled there seeking a deeper understanding of traditional African knowledge, spirituality, cosmology, and ways of living that recognize the visible and invisible worlds as interconnected. I became a student of The Earth Center and received the initiation name PerShaRa, which is deeply connected to the name Garden of the Sun. What people now experience as my brand did not begin only as a business idea. It grew from a much larger spiritual journey and from my desire to bring what I was learning into the way I lived and created.
I was also married to Naba Lamoussa Bassirou, a man from Burkina Faso, and we had three sons together. For a period of my life, marriage, motherhood, spiritual study, cultural immersion, and the practical realities of living between different worlds were all unfolding at the same time.
That chapter was not romantic or easy in the way people might imagine when they hear about traveling to Africa for initiation. Soon after I arrived, Master Naba, whose presence had been an important source of guidance and support, passed away. The circumstances around me changed significantly. I was pregnant, navigating immigration matters, working, studying, and doing what I could to remain in the program. I had to learn how to hold spiritual ideals alongside very human realities.
My marriage and my involvement with The Earth Center became part of a profound education, although not always in the ways I initially expected. I learned that seeking ancient knowledge does not remove us from the need for discernment, boundaries, self-trust, and personal responsibility. I also learned that no teacher, institution, marriage, or tradition can replace the inner work of knowing oneself.
There are elements from that period that remain meaningful to me, and there are also parts I have had to examine, question, and understand through my own experience. I do not believe honoring what I received requires me to surrender my ability to think critically or speak honestly about what I lived through. Both gratitude and truth can exist together.
This is one reason Garden of the Sun is so personal to me. It carries the spiritual seeds of PerShaRa, but it has grown through my own hands, consciousness, experiences, and evolution. It represents my ability to receive knowledge, live through complexity, and create something that is authentically mine from everything I have encountered along the way.
Pricing:
- Beading Class — $88
- Original Beaded Art and Adornments — Prices vary according to the size, materials, complexity, and time required to create each piece.
- Custom Beaded Creations — Individually priced after discussing the customer’s vision, preferred colors, materials, and design.
- Astrology Readings — Current pricing and booking information are available at gardenofthesun.org.
- Sacred Path Consultations — Current pricing and booking information are available at gardenofthesun.org.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://gardenofthesun.org
- Instagram: deviyakini_heri
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/Yakini.Herri.BI
- Youtube: @DeviUrania
