I thought I posted these before, but could not find them by searching.
Not as glamorous or rare as most of the posts here, but they have special meaning to me.
This is a seed bead and Juniper berry (Juniper Seed, Ghost Bead) necklace I gave to my Mom in 1986. My Mom loved the combo of red and white for everything.
I had one of the Navajo Grandma’s (Grandma Betty) where I worked make this. Her full name was Betty Begay.
The next two have a fun story behind them. We went to a garage sale in Flagstaff that was held by a fairly young Navajo couple. They had a lot of very nice jewelry, saddle blankets and rugs. It was priced well, but we could not afford much. A found a bag with a partial, broken necklace. The woman said her Grandma had made it. Originally, it was 6 or 7 strands, but broke. This was what was left.
I made 4 necklaces with the remnants of one.
All of the beads in these two were from that necklace.
These have been hanging in my dining room for many years and need a good cleaning. I do not know what the red and white one is strung with. It also has some gunk on the end. While my Mom was wearing it, the ends accidentally dipped in her soup.
The other two are strung on waxed dental floss. That was what the Grandma’s at work told me to use. Either that or cat gut. Or green Spiderwire fishing line. A fun fact is that years later many were using a specific type of Spiderwire for making jewelry. The brand was sold to a beading company, Beadalon, I think. I am always looking for Spiderwire at garage/estate sales, as it works great and is long lasting. Anyways, I got off topic…
What is the best way to clean these? I don’t want to mess up the integrity of what they were strung on. Do not want to discolor the Juniper.
The discoloration on the glass beads is all gunk. Think kitchen grease coated in dust. I did not realize they were this dirty.
Thanks for looking.
