For your bidding pleasure are these two necklaces of African sand cast, trade beads. 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 first necklace has beads that have a yellow base color with blue, green, white, , and red stripes set into them. The 46 beads on this strand average 3/4" long x 1/2" wide. The necklace measures 28" long and is strung on raffia. The second necklace of beads are white and blue solid beads with three striped beads. Sand cast beads aren't often seen in strong solid colors, given the method used to make them from recycled scrap glass. The beads on this necklace average 1/2" long x 1/2" wide. Their are 37 blue beads, 19 white beads and three striped beads. The necklace measures 30" long and is strung on raffia.