I want to talk about ethnic handmade jewellery
 | Ethnic Handmade Jewellery is something I have recently really been getting into. I find it fascinating to buy jewellery from all around the world and experience other countries' cultures through such a beautiful and artistic art form. When you look at, touch or even sometimes just touch these amazing pieces of ethnic handmade jewellery pieces, one just feels the culture flowing through their body. Thousands of years of history, passion, skill, trends, fashion has all transcended into the piece you now own, just incredible right?
Handmade Jewellery from third world countries, usually Asia or Africa, are usually in the beaded form because only rudimentary tools or even sometimes no tools at all are needed to make beaded jewellery. for example, when I last visited Kenya, a man working on small market stall in Nairobi handed me this wonderful beaded necklace, with a centre piece hyena tooth. He told me that he obtained the tooth from one of the regular hunting trips that he takes his sons and nephews on, a great traditional. They kill hyenas to protect their cattle and other livestock from being devoured by them, livestock being their livelihood. I was able to take take this jewellery piece away and back to my home in London and tell the tale to all my friends and colleagues that I work with and know. How many jewellery pieces would you be able to tell stories about in your current jewellery collection? Few I bet, for me, I just cant put a price on something so intrinsically beautiful as jewellery piece with such a fascinating back story. When i bought the piece from him, I there and than gave him 5 times the amount he was asking for, because i valued it more than he did quite obviously. To him this was a lot of money, but for me it was actually more in line with the price i would usually pay for a jewellery piece in London anyway, so it was a win win situation all around. Another ethnic jewellery piece that I hold dear to my heart is my Indian beaded necklace. I obtained it from a Hindi wedding that I attending right here in London from in fact the bridge of said wedding. It was crafted in India and sent over here by her grandmother along with many others for what are the equivalent to 'brides maids' although being a Hindi wedding we obviously were not bride's maids! |
