So-called "African trade beads" can be made from recycled or reclaimed items such as antique bottle glass, Czech glass beads, dice beads, porcelain "Prosser" beads, or decorative clay spindle-whorls; and they can be made from stone, semiprecious minerals or organic materials.
Semiprecious bead stones might include agate, chalcedony, carnelian, chrysocolla, so-called "greenstone" (chlorastrolite, chrysoprase, greenschist, omphacite, or serpentine), jade, jasper,lapis lazuli, onyx, obsidian, rock crystal, sardonyx, soapstone, terra cotta and turquoise.
Organic, or "zoogenous" materials are also popular bead materials. These materials might include bone, coconut shell, copal (an amber-like resin from the Copaifera tree), fire coral, hair,exotic hardwoods, so-called "Tibetan amber" (polymerized copal resin), wood resin, ivory, leather, nuts and seeds (job's tears, Coix lacryma-jobi), seed pearls, talons and claws, whole shells, colored yarn and mother-of-pearl. In tribal jewelry from Asian, Indian, and Persian cultures it is typical for most of these bead materials to be embellished with elaborate glyptic carvings that are representative of local motifs.
Beads are strung together with simple animal sinew, hair, hemp twine, or yarn; and can form a single strand of large disc-shaped, bicone, oval, sphere-shaped or drop beads; or they can be arranged in multiple strands of tiny "seed beads." Senegalese "love beads," or "Christmas Beads," use tiny seed beads that are strung into a multitude of strands that are used in traditional headdresses or as hair decoration.
Asian motif beadwork includes intricate Balinese beads in gold or silver, so-called "Hill Tribe" silver beads from the Karan tribe of the Golden Triangle; and tribal Cambodian, Chinese, Laotian, Burmese, Thai or Vietnamese metal beads from the Akha, Chin, Dong, Hmong (Miao), Lahu, Lisu or Shan tribes. Other countries that are known for their intricate metal beadwork are Bhutan Nagaland, Tibet, Nepal and India.
African, or Ethiopia amber (copal) beads come from the East African countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Yemin. Copal from the resin of the Frankincense incense tree Boswellia carteri has been produced in this region for thousands of years, and one of the largest ethnic groups to produce this amber is the nomadic Oromo from Ethiopia. As the copal beads are formed, the bead-makers can create patterns on the surface of the bead by working it with hot sticks.
Nose Ornaments & Piercing
Nose ornaments have been worn by most tribal cultures for thousands of years, and can be as simple as a single ring, barbell or pin; or as complex as the giant mesh or fan-style nose ornaments worn by the Pre-Columbian Moche peoples of Peru and Colombia.
The Matis Indians of Amazon Rainforest (aka "Jaguar People") use several thin spines from the ungurahui palm (Oenocarpus bataua), pierced through the septum at odd angles, to simulate the appearance of the jaguar's whiskers [3]. The Matsés Indians of the Río Gálvez (aka "Cat People") also simulate the whiskers of a jungle cat using foot-long spines made from caña brava reeds (Gynerium sagittatum), which can also be used to make spears and poison darts. Matsés women also use the reeds to pierce a perforation in their lower lip [6].
Traditional Hindu women from the Indian subcontinent use nose rings to signify marital status, and these can also be very complex, conneting to the hair with elaborate chains. Nostril, septum and bridge piercings can be made of only metal, or decorated with pearls and precious or semiprecious gemstones. Men from the Austro-Asiatic Asmat tribe of the south-coast of Irian Jaya, Indonesia (West Papua), wear enormous nasal ornamentations (up to 8 inches in width) made of flat, spiral-shaped boar tusk.
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