Powderglass beads with vertical stripes, grey, blue and red, 9x14mm
Short sample strand of the next innovation in Krobo beadmaking designed to imitate Venetian striped trade beads
These beads may not be beautiful but they are an important link in the story of powderglass beads in Ghana
This process is more complex than just layering one color of pulverized glass over another in the mold for horizontally striped beads
The steps involved: sifting a single color of glass into the mold, then pushing a very fine reed or wire into the powder at evenly spaced intervals around the edges of the mold. This compressed some of the original glass away from the edge, leaving a tiny channel when the reed was removed. Into this channel different colors of glass are funneled. The precision and control required is amazing.
You can see the process clearly when you look at the flat ends of the beads
Having achieved this feat, the desire to imitate more trade beads takes off in Kroboland, Ghana.
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