bead (n.)
from Old English gebed (n.)
‘prayer, entreaty, request’
All necklaces are made in small batches of wild clay harvested, washed and shaped all by hand. The beads are cooked into open fire, sometimes under the starry night sky and strung on a linen thread with deerskin and linen squaw wrap.
No glaze or underglaze is applied, all beads boast the raw natural color of clay innate beauty. The casual black hues come from direct contact with smoke and fire.
Black beads are the only exception. They are ‘colored’ black by the intense conditions generated within an environment of extreme oxygen reduction during firing. They are fired in the exact replica of an Etruscan mud kiln with the technique known as ‘bucchero’ by master potter Luca Bedini of Miluca pottery. This technique was very common amongst the ancestors of Northern and Central Italy.
The original letterpress note accompanying each necklace is from James Nowak. The deerskin , though barely visible, from Daniel Stermac-Stein of the Herds Throne. If you wish, you can easily find the work of these skilled craftmen online.
