Well beads make noise. They look

good on the hair. We can shake them. When

I think Of beads, I sure do reflect back on some

pictures of Alicia Keys with beads. They are

so creative and they add to the hair or whatever

they are placed on. But let's see how our Black

African people make these beads the way they are.

Africans making Beads,,,, Uh huh!

Egypt and Bida Nigeria are the only places where

traditional glassmaking occurs in Africa. But

Our Inventive Black African people still make

glass beads. They do so by recycling glass,

crushing it into powder and making beads from

powder.

The best type of beads are the

Kiffa beads in the West. The method is 1000 years

old.

The women who make them crush glass

into powder between stones. Plain glass

used for bottles is shapped into a core.

Brightly colored dark glass will be

useful for its decorations.


The core glass is wet with saliva

and built up into a bead shape upon a

thin stick. The inner stick stays in the bead

and the one coming out the bead will burn out

and leave the perforation.

The core is shaped in a shell

or a small clay mold. After the core is shaped,

the other other colors of class are wet and

put on the core with a pin or needle.

http://www.thebeadsite.com/bmm-pg.htm

Part 2: The process of Black Africans making beads

Dry powder glass beadmaking occured in Nigeria.

Today most of the beadmaking is done by the Black

African group, the Asante of central and northern

Ghana.

Krobo beads have a yellow foundation

and the bead adjagba is their hallmark. THe stripes

are added by poking a stick down the side of the

mold and filling the hole with darker glass. When

the firing process is in place, the bead is twisted

seome.

source:

http://www.thebeadsite.com/bmm-pg.htm