Elephant Hair & Sterling Silver Bracelet.

This bracelet is hand made out of sterling silver and elephant hair. The black in the bracelet is inlayed elephant hair. There are 5 links that are joined together with a hinges, there are 2 links with elephant hair and sterling silver that is alternated in horizontal stripes, and 3 links are San or Bushman cave paintings the black in these links is enamel. The clasp is like a watch clasp. The whole piece is hand crafted using elephant hair and sterling silver.

Elephant hair is traditionally used to make jewelry in Africa it is considered good luck and health, the hair is cut from the tail when the animals are darted for medical reasons. No elephants are killed for the hair.

About the Bushmen.

When 4000 years ago nomads came into contact with the much longer established hunter-gatherers of Southern Africa, they called them San meaning food gatherers. In the 17th century the Dutch colonized the Cape of Good Hope and called the hunter-gatherers of the plains “Boschjemannen” which translates to Bushmen. Bushmen are the longest surviving tribe of Southern Africa they are descendents of the Stone Age people.

About Rock Art.

The Europeans who first saw the Rock Art were fascinated but dismissive of their importance. Now days the true value and meaning of their art is being deciphered and appreciated., their art not only shows actual events that happened but are messages full of intricate and complex nuances in the symbols, metaphors and religious meaning

About the Giraffe.

The Giraffe is native to Sub Saharan Africa, and is the worlds tallest land animal. This egg has been painted with concentric layers of brown/green and orange, and then decorated with Giraffes using decoupage. Decoupage is the art of cutting and pasting cutouts to simulate paintings on a wood, metal, glass or in this case egg surface. Each egg takes 27 days to decorate, with several coats of lacquer applied to acquire the high gloss finish. First the background is painted once it is dried a few coats of lacquer are applied with a light sanding between each layer, then the decoupage images are applied, several more layers of lacquer are applied with a light sanding between each, the egg is finished with some gold accents. By applying the art to the egg in this way it gives the egg a multi-dimensional appearance instead of a flat appearance.