ArtFire

A sweet little elephant has carved detailing on it's little grey body, it also has a black crystal for an eye and rhinestones along it's back and down it's side. The elephant hangs from a small piece of gunmetal chain that has been suspended between the first two African sand cast beads. ("Sand cast beads," also known as powdered glass beads, are hand made glass beads from Ghana and other West African countries. Bead makers grind up bottles or other scrap glass to make these recycled beads. The beads are fired at relatively low temperatures in clay molds. The low temperature firing adds texture to the beads. Most of the patterns in the beads are glass, although some bead makers also embellish the beads with paint.

Africans have made powdered glass beads for centuries, and antique powdered glass beads are some of the most prized beads in the world. The beads used in this necklace have been made in the traditional manner.

Each African sand cast bead has been hand wire wrapped by me to create a connection for the next bead. Hand wire wrapped chocolate brown glass beads have been added to create a beautiful contrast to the lighter coloured African sand cast beads.
Larger light brown wooden oval beads with a black wood grain pattern painted onto them are hand wire wrapped and strung between the wire wrapped African sand cast beads and the wire wrapped chocolate brown glass beads.
This necklace is a nice trendy length of 32" to the bottom of the pendant.
A must have for all of those pretty summer outfits!

The inspiration behind making this necklace started when my 3 year old granddaughter's nursery school was doing a fundraiser to help offset additional costs that the school had. They were offering products sold by a "go green" online store. The African sand cast beads were one of the items being offered and apparently some of the proceeds from the sale of the beads went to the village in Africa that actually made these very beads that are in this necklace. How could I resist? I couldn't, I had to buy them because not only are each and every bead so unique and pretty but also the fact that the village that made the beads would be receiving additional funds.
Then I came across that sweet little elephant and the rest is artistic history.

African sand cast beads, elephant pendant, glass round beads, oval wooden beads, gunmetal chain