A necklace designer's compendium of information about handmade designer necklaces. Antique African beads, vintage Murano glass, moonstones ... and more.
April 16 or 17,2010 the British Broadcasting Company did a program on African Beads from Ghana. The program is called "Inside Africa" and the segment is "Ghana's Ancient Beads Back in Vogue". You can see it on cnn.com/inside Africa. Not only do you learn about beads, the program is an interesting quick visit to Ghana.
Some of the quotes were "" It's not just colors. Where i'm from, if you wear something like blue it's purity,white is fertility, gold is wealth. I know what it means so it is precious to me." Tairee
There is a "culture of sankofa in Ghana." It means "go back and retrieve what you've left behind". Ernestina Anafu, bead shop owner . She was referring to the long history of beads in Ghana. The gold color Bodum glass beads, shown in the adner-bergart.com necklace above, represented weath and were owned by African kings. They are at least 100 yrs old. The turquoise center bead and the rectangular olive green beads are new recycled glass beads . The turquoise glass beads are Czech circa 1920 and the rust satin finish beads are Murano glass circa 1950.
I promise! This is the last blog about the black ceramic gift beads(see blog below). After struggling to do justice to the gift of ceramic beads and completing the task to my satisfaction, I noticed these rectangular olive green and maroon Ghanian recycled glass beads lying around . I couldn't resist, and I combined them with the black ceramic beads from Mali and added Czech round light and dark green glass circa 1920 and olive green satin finish Murano glass circa 1950. It took no time at all. Guess what - it sold immediately! What is the moral of this story?
My friend gave me a strand of large, black ceramic beads with an incised pattern including the one in the center of the necklace shown above. She was working in Liberia, and purchased them there, but was not sure where they were made. I was told by an expert on African beads that they could be from Mali or Burkina Faso.
Jan .21 2010 was the first blog about these beads. It showed them combined with large brass beads and amber colored beads from Tibet. It was o.k. but not exciting.
I tried again combining the large beads with ebony beads with inlaid silver, frosted white Vintage Murano glass beads, and turquoise spacers from the Kingman mine in Arizona.
The new materials were an improvement but the necklace remained too clunky. See March 4 2010 blog.
It took awhile to realize the materials and colors were good but the design needed to be simplifed. By removing two of the large beads, and some of the frosted beads the problem was solved.
Justice was done to my wonderful gift and it is finally a well designed necklace. Hope you like it!
A friend found the large black ceramic beads with incised pattern shown above when she was working in
Liberia. I went to work on the beads hoping to create a necklace worthy of them. The result is the necklace above which combines ebony and silver rondelles with turquoise spacers from the Kingman mine in Arizona, blackish ceramic beads, and frosted white vintage Murano glass. An exotic combination to say the least. However, I am not happy with it. Although I tried many renditions, this is the best of my attempts.
The interesting thing about a design is you know when it is right. I might give it one more try with larger stronger beads. Maybe big round recycled beads from Ghana. Any suggestions?
More purchases from The Tucson Bead Show are shown above. The black beads shown above are ebony inlaid with silver. The brass beads were made in Mali and I think they are called boaly.
I just returned from the Tucson Bead Show, which is enormous, exhausting and exhilarating to say the least! There are buildings upon buildings, booths upon booths, and tables piled high with beads, precious stones, pearls and more. Before I traveled to Tucson, I spent a lot of time on line figuring out what vendors might interest me and where they were located. Still, I only made it to one building. The first day I found little that interested me.
The second day I found the needle in the haystack! Five years ago I met an African bead trader. He carried many one of a kind antique beads that were from all over Africa. Somehow, I lost contact with him and had no idea how to find him. I walked into a tent behind the large show and saw a huge table piled with African beads.. It was such a fabulous collection and behind the table was my friend, Abubakar! Better yet, he remembered my name.
I bought the beads shown above. The large blue and turquoise glass beads were made in Holland at least 100 yrs old. They are African trade beads from Ethiopia.
I also bought the milky wedgewood blue strand of beads. These also are at least 100 years old. They were made in Mali and are called Dogon
Both necklaces are expensive. For the same amount of money I could have purchased fine semi precious stone beads. People understand the cost of fine quality semi precious stones, but it is a little difficult to explain the cost of these rare, crude beautiful blue beads. What appeals to me is the history of the beads, their rarity and uniqueness. You can always buy another turquoise, but it is hard to find 100 year old beads.
Learn about beads, bead makers, artists, and history related to beads in Ghana from the colorful and interesting journal published by Tanya Jardi Kordylas called "Ahene". Ahene means beads in Twi, a local dialect in Ghana spoken by the Akan tribe. You can reach Tanya on ahenejournal@hotmail.com and she will forward a copy to you.
As you can see from the necklace above designed by Adner-Bergart with beads from Ghana , there are many styles of beads produced in Ghana. There is new powdered glass, recycled glass, new patterned glass, Ashanti brass, and many old beads still available. Ghana is the center of beadmaking in Africa. "Ahene" is a wonderful resource of information about Ghanian beads.
One of the handmade designer necklaces made by adner-Bergart.com is shown above. It combines beads from the countries of Ghana, Uganda and Ethiopia.
The large striped mustard color beads are made from powdered glass in Ghana. The large turquoise beads are made from recycled glass in Ghana.
The medium size beads in the back are made from recycled paper that is lacquered. These are produced in Uganda.
The beads between the recycled beads are handmade brass beads from Ethiopia.
All the beads are interesting and different. All are wonderful.
This necklace can be purchased by contacting us on the contact us page in the website above.
The handmade designer necklace above is composed of African beads, except for the vintage gold Murano glass beads that separate the Mali Wedding beads.
The black and white striped beads are old Mali glass. One can tell that they are old by the fine patterns and the thin edges. The new Mali glass wedding beads are of harsher solid colors. They have a slightly squared edge. Be sure when you purchase Mali Wedding beads that you pay for what you get. Like everything else, the old beads are much more expensive than the new ones.
The large circular new Ashanti brass beads are a great substitute for gold. They have a wonderful bronze gold color, distinctive patterns, and come in a myriad of shapes and sizes. Unfortunately, I have purchased strands that have so many defects that I have only been able to use a few of the beads. Defects I have found are: one side is perfect and the other side has holes in it, extra brass drops fall on the piece, and pieces are broken. A word to the wise, examine them carefully before purchasing.
A necklace of old blue Mali wedding beads similar to the one above is on the website adner-bergart.com. Cost is $250. Use the comment space on this blog or the follow the instructions on the website if you wish to make a purchase.
In Lisa Kosan's interview with Iris Apful, fashion doyenne, she said "In the right tonality, I never met a color I didn't like." The fuscia and rust in the necklace above are examples of colors that could clash, but do not when they are in the same tones.
When designing a room, a rule of thumb is to use a lot of neutral, a lesser amount of a second color, and a small amount of an accent color. This necklace uses the same principles. The major colors are the black and white batik bone from Kenya which is neutral, the next amount of color is orange in various tones. There is the soft apricot shade of the large recycled glass pieces from Ghana, the brown ( a dark orange) of the bauxite that surrounds the centerpiece, and the rust in the vintage Murano glass beads. The accent and smallest amount is the fuscia vintage Murano glass beads. This works as well in necklaces as it does in rooms.
This handmade designer necklace fromAdner-Bergart.com is presently in the Color Obsession Gallery in Mashpee, MA. At an opening party, I met an acquaintance who is "intuitive". Although there were four of our necklaces displayed, she went right to this necklace, lifted it up, and said she just had to touch the yellow beads. She said they were old, there was a story, but she did not know what it was.
The yellow opaque glass with turquoise patterns on them are about 100 yrs old. They are called Bodum and were made for African kings . Collectors covet Bodum beads and the best ones still have colored patterns on them.
This was the first necklace that Andrea and I made. We made a long one and a short one and they both sold immediately. We have two more left to sell. What I love about this necklace is how the turquoise glass beads glow. It has history, a great color combination, and rare beads.
The Bodum beads are combined with the rust satin vintage Murano glass beads, Czech blown turquoise glass circa 1920 and new recycled glass beads from Ghana.
The Boston Globe Fall Fashion magazine of 8/23/09 has a standout article about "Red Hot and New". It says that red is the"in"color this year, and has an elegant 6 page photographic spread of models dressed in various shades of black , grey and red. The photographer is Sadie Dayton and the styling is by Marci Duarte/team.
The only thing missing from this wonderful display are necklaces! If they only knew about Adner-Bergart's Niger necklace illustrated above or about the antique Murano opaque red glass and Swarovski black crystal necklace illustrated in Blog #1 they would have achieved perfection.
The "Niger" necklace illustrated above is made from beads made from ceramic from Niger, sterling silver , red glass from Ghana and antique and vintage Murano glass. More information about it can be found at adner-bergart.com.
This handmade designer necklace is made from the antique millifiore Murano glass beads used for trade in Africa discussed in blog#2. It is combined with sterling silver, vintage Murano glass, kunzinite, and carnelian beads. It is an informal necklace that adds color to whatever one wears. More about is is found on necklacesbyadner.com.
About 40 years ago I was in Tangiers for a day or so. At that time, in the souk, there were barrels of old millifiore murano glass beads now known as African trade beads. I had no idea what to do with them, but I liked the way they looked. You could buy a huge scoop of beads from a big barrel and it cost a few dollars. Oh how I wish I had I purchased several scoops of beads. Now they are worth a lot of money.
I knew a psychologist who said you only regret the things you don't buy.
Many years later they served their purpose. They started my necklace passion. I made my first necklace combining those beads with semi precious stones from an old necklace my Aunt had given me, and now Andrea Bergart and I are making handmade designer necklaces from her old African beads, and my collection of old Murano glass beads.
I have a lifetime of experience in art, design, and bead collecting. I create handmade designer necklaces from unique beads, from many eras and cultures. Here you will read about what I have seen and where you can go to see it whether it be a website, exhibit, auction, store or gallery.
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