Welcome to the bead art of Silver Tukul Designs, where old is new again. Melissa Nordstrom of Silver Tukul Designs enjoys traveling the remote corners of Africa, where old, unusual treasures and beads can still be found.
Melissa is a "student of the bead," learning as she collects, breathing life into new designs, giving each bead a chance to shine again. Share and wear history with us.
This piece is:
A 38 1/2 inch Batik and coffee seed bead necklace. Composed of batik hairpipe beads and accented with Bronze, copper, and brass, This necklace is strung on traditional black cotton cord. Gold plated, hammered clasp. Old snake beads, millefiore, cornaline d'Aleppo. Recycled glass bead, Ghana.
Batik beads are made from bone which have been "painted" with wax and then dipped in dye. When the wax is removed, the pattern emerges and the bead is polished. Large batik beads are hollowed out, filled with a wood core, and drilled for a hole.
The cornaline d'Aleppo is an old trade bead made in Italy and traded into Africa when beads were "cash" for staple crops, ivory, gold, oils. The bead was expensive to produce in its day, as the red color was based on an oxide of gold. The bead's common name is derived from the "carnelian" (a deep red stone) and the city of Aleppo, Syria--a town scorched by hot sun, leaving exposed skin to turn bright, blistery red.
Now available as SilverChicks.com. E-mail catie@silverchicks.com if you have any questions.
Shipping available
