19th century, North Africa
Gorgeous branch coral painstakingly collected by Jewels in Morocco and perfectly, imperfectly placed in a very particular order with rare trade glass, hand woven between each bead and finished with an old amber bead.
Jewels: “Coral is calming, whenever I am feeling out of sorts or scattered, it is what I turn to, handling it centres me. In the olden days in Tibet, it was ground up and used as a palliative for women, a defensive for madness and flights of instability. The Navajos believed every woman must wear coral by the age of thirty as protection from forces on other planes while the Berbers believed in wearing it to guard against the evil eye. For me I feel the honor of working with it, to imagine on what women’s dreams were held, what passages of time were captured in these mythical stones. Amazing to think how these beads have come to be here now on my desk, makes my heart skip a beat.”
One of a kind
Necklace length: 17.25″
Green glass bead: .75 x .5″
A note about our woven cords. We weave these by hand, every one of them. Like all Jewels’ work no two are exact, as each of us. The work is labor intensive. When warmed to the skin the cord becomes more supple, conforms to the wearer, hangs at it should; the necklace transforms more than just a necklace. It becomes her.