For your bidding pleasure is a necklace of African sand cast, bi-cone trade beads. The beads have a green/blue base color with black, yellow, and red stripes set into them. The beads on this strand average 3/4" long x 1/2" wide. Sand cast beads aren't often seen in strong solid colors, given the method used to make them from recycled scrap glass. The technique for creating this style of bead started in Ghana during the 16th century. Very fine pieces of crushed glass are held together with a binding material, such as saliva or gum Arabic, and spread over a grass stem or a bottle glass core. After cooking in the oven, the beads are rolled in other small pieces of glass to create patterns or left plain. The necklace measures 29" long and is strung on raffia.