Beaded+Art+From+Around+The+World!

Beads! Beads! Beads! Beaded Art From Around The World!

Beads come from many different places around the world, with different techniques and styles. (Africa) Egypt - The ancient Egyptians loved beads, jewelry, and jewelry design. Their jewelry was designed with a lot of thought and care. Jewelry was not only valued for beauty but for the spiritual protection it provided to the wearer. The colors and designs of th beads often represented something spiritual. For example, Lapis lazuli and turquoise were expressed as joy or delight. Copper, malachite, and gold represented a connection with the solar system/sun. As technology evolved, glass making became easier, and jewelry was more affordable. Jewelry was often preserved with the mummies, sent with them to their next life, and protected them.





( Asia ) China, Korea and Japan - China, Korea, and Japan have their own way of doing things, and making their beads. The oldest beads found in China were made from stone about 16,000 years BCE, and found in caves at Shou-kou-dian. Other beads made ostrich eggshell and fossil dinosaur eggshell have been found in the Gobi Desert, and date back to 12,000. BC. Jade beads, a signature of China, have been found which date from 1500 to 1000 BC. Silver and glass beads, in the asian area, were also made as early as 800 BC. Jade, coral, lapis lazuli, glass, turquoise and amber, all made into unique beaded jewelry, were imported into China, then to Korea and Japan through the Silk Road routes over a 1,200-year period from 200 BC to 1,000 AD. Chinese glass "eye" beads dating from the 4th to the 1st century BC are among the finest and most complex ever made.



(Americas) Native Americans - Native american beads/jewelry is beautiful, handmade, and still made today in its traditional way. The ancient techniques of hundreds of tribes are still used to make traditional jewelry. Shells, slices of turquoise, and occasionally other semi-precious stones are broken into small pieces. A hand-pump drill makes a small hole through each piece, drilling from both sides if it is thick. The beads are strung and the string is rolled on a piece of fine sandstone until they are smoothed into cylinders. The smaller the bead, the more work involved, so the more expensive they are. Native american necklaces are always many-stranded, sometimes all of the same kind of bead.



India - India, is well known for its beautiful stones, of great value and importance today. Some of the most valuable stones coming out of india fabulous rubies, emeralds, and sapphires that are hand faceted and drilled there. Historians believe that the making of stone into beads dates back in India to the Stone Age. Most of the stone beads that are imported into America come from India.





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