Additional information: For more information, please see our comprehensive guide to African-made beads, African Beads: Jewels of a Continent, hardcover, 216 pages, 163 color photographs, available from Africa Direct. The name "heishi" comes to us from the Santo Domingo and San Felipe Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, and can be translated as "shell bead." The earliest recorded beads were made using the heishi technique. Heishi are produced by perforating shell fragments, threading them on wire, and then grinding them into disk shapes against a stone. Whereas "heishi" originally referred only to shell beads made with this technique, the term is now applied to disk-shaped beads made from almost any natural material.

• Type of Object: Coconut shell
• Made In: Africa
• Bead Size: 15-19 mm diameter. See picture with penny for size comparison (US penny is 19mm diameter). and Strand Length: 35 inches (includes string/raffia)

Type of Object: Coconut shellAfrica Direct