Eye beads

Sometimes the best ideas come from customers!  At a recent show, a woman picked up my large (over 1 1/4") round, hollow eye bead and asked if I could make it in cone shape.  The round hollow eye bead is the one furthest to the left, and the rest of the beads are the result of her request.    Two of these are wired as a pendant, ready to add a chain.  I like them so much I will continue to make them.  This is one of my favorite color combinations, and I love to make the color gradation.

The design is an ancient one.  The more eyes (dots) there are, the more protection the bead gives the wearer, although the nature of the protection varied in different cultures.  One of the most interesting to me was the idea that a person did not want a god to look at them- that caused bad things to happen.  When wearing an eye bead, the eyes confused the god, who sent the bad karma to the bead which reflected it back and away from the wearer.  There are cultures today who continue the tradition.