Collection: Out of Afghanistan

Talking about beads – just mention Afghanistan and a number of words immediately come to mind; Lapis Lazuli, Jade, Tribal, Ethnic, Turkoman, Kazakh, Hand-Made and among others Jewellery.

In recent times Afghanistan has seen a huge influx of people from regions outside this land-locked desert country.

And with them came they brought a wealth of ability, knowledge, culture and traditions.

From the Ural Mountains in Kazakhstan came the nomadic Sunni Muslims (known as Kazakh’s) settling in Northern Afghanistan where they introduced their hand-beaten metal tribal Beads - with semi-precious stone inlay.

The beads themselves are generally hollow and have been decorated with intricate silver wire work and circular frames with semi-precious stone inlaid – along with their familiar trademark called ‘false granulation’ – which depict triangular imprints.

Then came the Turkoman people – an ethnic group native to Central Asia - living mainly in Turkmenistan and the north-eastern regions of Afghanistan and Iran.  They introduced their unique hand-beaten white metal beads - generally adorned with intricate circular silver wire whipped filigree frames which are then filled with a semi-precious coloured stone enamel (to resemble gemstones).

While other groups took advantage of the huge deposits of Lapis Lazuli found in northern Afghanistan and created some of the world’s finest beads using this special semi-precious stone.