Tuareg collectibles in Portland USA

Beads have lain in graves next to the bones of their wearers for time immemorial. Their universal appeal may stem from their similarity to the human eye. Early man collected stones that nature had equipped with holes thus allowing for threading and easy transport. Then followed the purposeful and painstaking drilling of holes and eventually the actual manufacturing of beads from bone, shell, ceramics, seeds, stones, metal and eventually glass. The first glass beads were crafted thousands of years before Christ in various parts of the world, particularly Western Asia and Egypt.

Originally beads of stone, glass, or other materials found in nature were treasured for their medicinal, magical, symbolic or protective value to eventually serve as wearable currency and now primarily admired for their beauty and as decoration. However, still now, in some parts of the world many a mother will hang an "eye bead" (dotted bead) around her child's neck to shield against the "evil eye". Also some people still attribute various medicinal qualities to precious and semi-precious stones or metals and then wear them for healing or protection. Many of the beads used in the jewelry offered here were taken to the New World by European seafarers and traders out to discover, conquer and exchange for gold, ivory, spices, silk and other precious merchandise. Starting around the 15th century and then particularly the slave trade brought hundreds of thousands of tons of glass beads to the Americas, Africa and even the Orient, though the Asians were making their own glass beads for centuries. These trading beads were and still are manufactured primarily in Italy (Venice/Murano,) Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Yugoslavia and Holland. In those days the Europeans actually tailored their bead production in color and design to the preferences of the native populations they found. For example, green and yellow were special to the Africans, while Lewis and Clark supposedly took the preferred black and white glass to the North West Native Americans. West Africans liked to wear real snake vertebrae as necklaces so the Venetians manufactured glass beads shaped like snake vertebrae for the African trade, etc.

Now the circle has closed. Hundreds of years later we, the descendants of the original European artisans and sea farers are buying the beads back from the native populations to which our ancestors traded them. These beads are well traveled and I wished they could tell their stories. Once dismissed as trivial ornaments these trading beads have become objects of admiration for us. Over the last 50 years there has been an incredible increase of interest among bead collectors. Trade beads' monetary value continues to grow. They are cherished for their use in jewelry and many bead collectors will spend a pretty penny for these often patina-laden strings of glass.

When I speak of "antique" European glass in the descriptions of my jewelry the prospective buyer should know that the vast majority of the beads I use "lived in" West Africa for the last 200 years. I also use contemporary beads, vintage glass beads, semi precious stones beads as well as tribal and modern silver to compliment the antique trading beads. This gives my jewelry a folk art feel with contemporary appeal.