Loose Beads Jewelry

Glass beads from Mali, their surfaces dulled by long burial. Loose beads and bead strands here come from Mali, Nigeria, Ethiopia, India, Italy and Southeast Asia, in glass, brass, coin silver, coral and stone. Excavated glass strands from Mali include some dated as early as the 1st century, and Yoruba glass beads come from Nigeria. Italian millefiori glass, much of it once traded into West Africa, appears in long strands, along with Italian rubrum coral.

Brass strands include chevron-style beads and looped designs, and coin silver beads come from India. Hill tribe silver beads from Laos, Thailand and Burma, Ethiopian glass, tiger’s eye, copper, a carved amber bee and a Chinese bronze good luck coin fill the trays. Restring a strand into a necklace, or pile a few in a shallow bowl on a desk, where hands find them. Beads have traveled farther than most of the people who wore them.