When picturing native crafts, most people imagine tiny colorful seed beads. However, many of the earliest beads looked like the ones pictured above. Alhough some of the beads were thin, many primitive beads were large. The unrefined nature of the tools available to early beaders made it more difficult to create smaller beads. Advanced in design, the invention of a pump drill was impressive.
Culture also played a role in bead design. Early native ancestors, while they had a strong family structure, did not have the luxury of extra time to create the intricate beads desinged by their descendants. Creating smooth, uniform beads was not only a show of skill, but an example of a family’s wellbeing. Generally only artisans who lived in a productive family with safe lodgings and a comfortable level of food had the time to create these complex beads.
