Wedding Beads, Mali
West African bead merchants refer to these Czech glass pendants as "Wedding Beads", traditionally worn in Mali in wedding ceremonies. These colorful candy-like baubles are so versatile in design work. A spacer in-between allows each bead to hang down. Strung one after another, the beads will string up and down on the string. Great for earrings. This short strand is 20 inches long, with hexagonal carnelian glass beads in the mix. Briolettes are 14mm tall x 8mm diameter. Hexagonal beads are mostly 15mm across, but several smaller, and are milk glass color. 73 beads on the strand, a few chipped. Made in Czech Republic in the 1920's-40's.
