"NeoTribal"

Hello! I do hope you are all enjoying the summer.

A friend I met through Etsy, Susan Delphine Delaney, sent a pin to me the other day with the title being NeoTribal, saying she liked the word as a descriptor. To my chagrin a few moments later, I said I don't really know what that means. She responded, oh, I just took it to mean New Tribal. duh. . . . right? Of course it's New Tribal! So that sparked the idea to make tribal-like earrings for today's post. As I was working I started to think about what really was traditional tribal jewelry, specifically traditional tribal earrings. I did not have a real vision of what it was. I did some searching (I admit, not a lot) for tribal jewelry. I expected it to be an easy search with a plethora of images. Not so.

Fulani 

Maasai

The two photos are of African earrings. Two very different styles. The colorful beaded earrings are 9 1/2 inches long, and were made in Africa by the Maasai people. The gold and cotton earrings, also from Africa, made by the Fulani people. These two photos are from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They are early 20th century. 

I searched then for Native American Jewelry. This photo came from the website http://www.beyondbuckskin.com in a section called Ancient Southwest Jewelry. The dates of these earrings are, starting from the top, 1100-1200 CE, (common era), the 1800s, and 1978. Beautiful mosaic inlay of Turquoise. So a lot of Turquoise and Silver was mostly what I found, again, on a cursory search. 

So I now have some real curiosity to dig deeper when I have the time to see what I can find.

1.

2.

Just briefly then, my earrings today: 1. "Bone" ceramic sticks, as well as ceramic beads from the same strand, paired with Red Creek Jasper, various metal beads, copper wire and Niobium ear wires. Ceramics by Andrea Salkowe of Josephine Beads. I love this pair. . but I ended up not listing it. There was more I would have liked to do with them, a basic jumping off point, but they were getting too heavy. I will likely take them apart and start again. 

2.  I think these are my favorites. :) The ceramic focals are by Petra Carpreau of ScorchedEarthOnEtsy. Paired with Ceramics from the same strand as No. 1. Natural Sig-Id Vine beads are wrapped to the black dagger-shaped Sgraffito focals with waxed Irish linen. I didn't use any wire in this design, just the linen. There are natural, rustic Turquoise bi-cone beads, topped with a red glass bead. The linen was knotted to a Tierra Cast copper-plated spacer bead. The dangles at the bottom contain green turquoise glass beads, tea-stained bone beads, and vintage Kuchi/Kochi tribal clapperless bells.

3. The last pair, both ceramic elements were made by Georgia Neumann of AtHomeInTaos. I used various copper beads, ball-tip headpins I made from copper, Czech glass beads, more copper wire, Niobium ear wires, and a tiny brass teardrop.

3. 

If you ever have any questions at all about techniques and/or processes, please just message me through my Etsy shop. It's great fun to look at other people's work for inspiration, or when looking to purchase. But if there is anything I can help you with that you see in these earrings, please just let me know.

As always, I appreciate your taking the time to stop by. All feedback/comments are welcome. In fact, we'd appreciate it! 

Thank you! I'll be back the first Tuesday in August. I do hope the rest of July is joyful! 

Norbel
She Flies Again on Etsy
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