CRADLEY artist Sue Lim has just returned home after visiting the fabulous desert city of Timbuktu, in the African nation of Mali.

Sue spent two weeks in Mali with a team from Jump4Timbuktu, a trade-not-Aid business which grew out of the twinning of Hay on Wye and Timbuktu.

Sue has been selling jewellery made by the Taureg people of the region in her Blue Ginger gallery at Cradley, since last year, when a group of Tauregs who were at the Hay Festival delivered their goods to the gallery in person.

"We spent the first few days in Djenne, a city made entirely of mud buildings, where the mosque is the biggest mud building in the world. It’s also the centre of bogolan - material made from locally grown and spun cotton dyed with vegetable dyes and mud."

The team then drove towards Timbuktu, spending the night in the home village of Mohamed Alhare, one of the Tuareg artisans who’d visited Blue Ginger.

"We received great hospitality both in the village and in Timbuktu, where meetings were held sitting on the floor and discussing the problems of the artisans and our problems of marketing their work in the West. Without access to the internet, shops and limited banking facilities, we experienced some of their isolation.

"For the artisans, trading in Timbuktu is possible for four months of the year when a limited number of tourists visit. During the other eight months temperatures soar and the dry desert climate of the Sahara is hostile to visitors. This initiative will help them trade with Britain and the rest of Europe, support their families and the community. Eventually profits can be directed into projects in the community."