Africans have always adorned themselves with shells and other natural materials and that tradition is still strong today.
Take, for example, the humble cowrie shell. It's used in jewellery and as an embellishment on textiles. Historically, it's been used as money. In fact, the Ghanaian currency - the Cedi - actually means 'cowrie'.
Also in Ghana, stone beads carved from bauxite are both ceremonial and practical: pregnant women wear bauxite beads as protection against evil words.
Bead size and scale
As a visual clue to the size and scale of our beads, we use a Star beer cap in our bead images. Why Star? Because it's the major beer of Ghana where most of our beads are made. Also, on the buy pages, we indicate approximate bead dimensions in millimetres.
Asanti Amishade drilling bauxite stone beads: Abompe, Ghana
Multi-buy saving - Mix 'n' Match
Any 10 for the price of 9
Applies to all £2.35 packs of beads. Your discount will be applied automatically at the checkout.