How to Make Zulu Bracelets
The Zulu African tribe is known for its rich culture as well as its beautiful beaded jewelry, which is typically colorful and intricate in its design. Although members of the tribe use zulugrass, a natural resource made of reeds to form the beads, when making your own similar Zulu bracelet you can rely on your own resources — your local craft store and your creativity. Typically, the Zulu tribe uses a diamond pattern to signify their color code and send messages, but your bracelet will have a different twist, using safety pins to create a horizontal striped design that still represents the Zulu color code. Use the color code of the Zulu tribe to make your bracelet represent certain values like love or friendship, or craft a bracelet to show the world what you personally value.
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Things You'll Need
- Colored seed beads in a variety of colors
- 30 to 40 medium size safety pins
- Scissors
- Elastic thread
Instructions
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Traditional Zulu Beaded Bracelet
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1
Follow the Zulu bead code to determine what beads you'd like to use and what order you'd like to use them: black signifies sorrow, loneliness, marriage and rebirth; red stands for intense love and strong emotion; green means jealousy, lovesickness, contentment; clear beads represent doubt, uncertainty, obvious; pink beads mean promise, high status, fresh love; white represents purity, faithfulness, peace, true love, spiritual love; yellow means wealth, garden, thirst and blue means hope, calmness, faithfulness and respect.
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2
Open each safety pin and slip on beads, either in a random order or in a color pattern that you'd like repeated in the rest of the bracelet. Close the safety pin.
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3
Repeat with as many safety pins as it would take to cover your wrist, or the wrist of whomever you're giving the bracelet to.
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4
Cut two 12-inch strands of elastic thread and loosely knot the threads together at one end.
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5
Feed the unknotted end of one of the two threads into the top eyehole of one of the beaded safety pins and feed the other unknotted end of the two threads through the bottom eyehole of the same safety pin.
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6
String on the other pins, turning every other pin upside down.
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7
Undo the original knot and tie together the ends of the top length of thread, then tie together the ends of the bottom length to form a slip-on Zulu colored bracelet.
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Tips & Warnings
Zulu jewelry involves messages given through the placement of colors. In order to send a certain message in your bracelet, write a note to the recipient of your gift, explaining why you used or placed specific colors next to each other to convey a certain idea. For example, a bracelet using greens and blues could signify contentment, faithfulness and respect as a type of friendship bracelet.
Because safety pins can be sharp and beads can be easily swallowed, be careful if completing this craft with small children.
References
Resources
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