Description

Handmade Necklace

This jewellery is all handmade and comes from South Africa.

Because it is handmade each piece is a little different. Some of these necklaces are one offs and will not be repeated.

Made from different types of material. Including seed beads, fancy beads, buttons and some semi-precious stones wood and metal beads. These stones are Sapphire Jasper, Silver Lace Agate, Sereiphinite, and Tree Agate.

Two of the necklace are based on the Zulu Love letter but worked in wire and beads. This is a stylized version but does not have the cultural importance of a true love letter.

The Zulu Love Letter.

The Love letter is an African beaded message given by Zulu maidens to their intended husbands. The message is symbolic and designed to convey the maidens love and affection. Each colour and combination of colours has different meaning.

These meaning are.

White: hope, true love, purity and cleanliness.

Black: grief, loneliness, and fear that another maiden is being courted

Green: love sickness, jealousy and pinning

Yellow: wealth (or lack of) if we marry I will be hungry as you have limited resources

Blue: faithfulness

Turquoise: impatience, losing hope that we will marry

Pink: abject poverty through being wasteful

Red: intense love and longing

Brown: love is like the earth which creates new life.

A high level of skill is brought to the production of work that has long been a part of African society, though its significance has changed as it has found new commercial outlets.

For instance, beadwork, which was once the insignia of tribal royalty alone, gradually developed broader meanings in traditional society, related to courtship and the like.

Today the love letters are usually made with a safety pin used to attach the letter. Or can be made as part of a beaded necklace.