Question:
I'm thinking of making two dZi bead necklaces, and I'd be happy for any
suggestions you can make: stringing material, accent beads, findings,
knots...whatever.
First necklace:
I'm thinking of making one for myself. I'm a man who likes simple
necklaces. Some of you might remember my early post in this NG, where I
said my girlfriend and I went to a local pow wow and met a nice Native
American gentleman who spent lots of time with us explaining his beads
and the history of beads. A simple necklace he made of plain yellow oval
glass beads is still my favorite, even though I've gotten others and
made some of my own (some fancier, some as simple). So if I made a
dZi-bases necklace for myself, it would be simple.
But so far the necklaces I've made have a fairly large number of beads:
beads from one end of the clasp to the other. Obviously I won't be doing
that with dZi beads (I wish!). I'll work with one black and white (maybe
brown and white) dZi bead that'd probably be about 1" or 1 1/2" long,
with a hole drilled through the length (not pendant style).
Second necklace:
This one would be for a woman who's a good friend of ours and who's
going through some medical problems. We don't usually exchange gifts
(we're thinking of this for Christmas), but my girlfriend and I think
this friend could use a nice pick-me-up this year. So this necklace
could be more feminine, but not overly so. She's traveled to Tibet, BTW,
and was fascinated by the culture there. Again, I'd be working with one
dZi bead, as above.
On a related note, I came across a $275,000 dZi bead advertised on the
web last night. Wow! I knew from my research that some could be rare and
costly, but I hadn't guessed that I'd find something like that on the
web.
What? Of COURSE I'm buying it! LOL--just kidding! I found some
reasonably priced dZi beads (well, reasonably priced for authentic old
dZi) at $400. But even if I believed the provenance (and I'd need to do
a LOT of research before I did that!!), those aren't the ones I'm
planning to use. I found some that are made the same way as the old ones
(etched agate, with traditional patterns), but they're new. Because
they're not vintage, they sell for about $50-110.
Answer:
http://www.tibetanbeads.com/Dzi.htm
http://web.singnet.com.sg/~sgpak/dzigal1.htm (A gallery - still nice to look
at though)
http://www.ethnicart.com/bead3-dzi.htm (sells fakes too)
http://www.tiger-tiger.com/beadsdzi.html
http://www.outofasia.net/beads/beads.htm (they don't list prices... hehehe)
Would really like to see the finished necklace...
