GEMSTONE BEADS

Popular & Affordable Jewelry

- BY STEVE VOYNICK

Gemstone beads, manufactured by the billions, eminently affordable and part of our everyday lives, are easy to take for granted. Defined as “small bits of material perforated for stringing and worn as ornamentation,” the utter simplicity of this definition belies their fascinating history.

GEMSTONE BEADS ARE EARLY ADORNMENTS

As the first durable ornaments humans ever possessed, gemstone beads are among the most abundant of all archaeological recoveries. Beads have played enormous roles in history and commerce, while their manufacturing methods have reflected the progress of technology. As part of the art, culture, religions and jewelry of society, beads are a mirror of humanity.

Available in every imaginable color, color combination, degree of transparency, size, shape and texture, gemstone beads have been fashioned from virtually every durable material—natural and synthetic, metal and nonmetal, organic and inorganic. And beadworking—the art of arranging many individual beads into complex patterns—continues to invite artistic creativity.

The first gemstone beads, made during the late Paleolithic Period more than 100,000 years ago, were fingernail-sized marine shells, perforated, often stained red with powdered hematite and showing abrasion marks from wearing or carrying on strings. They represent the earliest anthropological evidence of the emergence of sophisticated, symbolic-material cultures capable of abstract thought and appreciating the value of non-functional objects.

GEMSTONE BEADS BECOME TALISMANS