African jewelry are known for they interpreted in many ways in the contemporary fashion all over the world. Black special models are very in vogue and tribal adornment embellishes. Today in Africa jewelry manufacture has become an art form and sometimes a way to express one’s personality or a form of individual expression.
Name ‘jewellery’ is derived from a Latin word ‘jocale’ which means ‘plaything’. Since that time we can see that historically jewelry has been used as a form of adornment that gives status and pleasure to its wearer.
North African Jewelry
The rich mixture of different jewelry in North African reflects the varied African cultures of the region’s inhabitants and their long history of contact and extensive trade. Imported materials from the sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, America and Middle East were lavishly combined with local African materials of diverse form and color.
Used widely around Africa, beads have been made and imported locally for thousands of years. African beads of different sizes and different shapes made of coral, glass, stone, and shell, amber, old coins and plastic buttons are combined in elaborate Africans designs. The range of different techniques also reflects the cosmopolitan history of North African region.
Egyptian Beads
Egypt was one of the first’s country to produce a large variety of Africans beads, and some of those beads were made from paper or wood, with beadwork in Egypt dating back to 2,500 B.C.
First in Egyptians started to create only beads and then they imported those products all over the Africa but then they started to combine and create different beautiful jewelry. They produced jewelry using different technique that threaded single beads together by hand rather than using a loom or loop to make it ore special. This process made each jewellery piece different from another with great attention to design, durability and color.
