Contemporary Wood Bead Fiber Optic Bead Choker Tribal Necklace.

Unique and affordable. This highly fashionable piece of hand strung tribal jewelry features beautiful beads made from genuine wood. The wood beads, the black fiber optic beads, and the white glass seed beads have been artfully strung together in an alternating pattern for a distinct and eye catching look. This sensational tribal choker necklace is lightweight and very comfortable. It is 16" long with an extra 1-1/4" long extension chain and lobster claw for easy wear.

Bead making is one of the earliest human crafts. As people began to populate a larger portion of the earth, the variety of materials available for bead work and other artifacts increased. As tribal groups spread through the distances and landscapes, trade often involved beads as a means to exchange and disperse the rare, precious, and unique materials from one region to another. While beads made from varying valuable materials were functioning as the primordial form of money, they were also being used as signs of wealth, status, culture, and religion in the form of jewelry and other adornment. It didn't take long for the great empires of the ancient world like the Egyptians to advance the use of beads in fashion. A long history of intricate multi-strand compositions and elaborate clothing made entirely from bead work would develop. In the Americas, the use of beads was highlighted by their production in gold, jade, turquoise, and silver for use in an abundant variety of amazing jewelry by the South American civilizations and the North American Natives. Although the industrial revolution changed the way we value and look at beads, their prolific use still continues today in the same ways it has for thousands of years. A single bead can be produced from plastic in a micro second for a fraction of a cent. Despite this fact, when embroidered together in the thousands by hand on a wedding dress they can increase the value of the dress exponentially, conveying the status, wealth, and individuality of the wearer just as they have in the past. How could we ever live without our accessories and ornamentation? It's the little things in life that sometimes give us the most pleasure and defining character. We as humans, from the earliest times, have considered the adornment of our person to be one of the necessities of life - as essential as food and shelter.