Today's Piece of the Week is a Necklace and Earrings made of Turquoise nuggets and Ebony wood beads. When I put these beads together I loved the way the chocolate brown matrix in the stones was complemented by the rich, dark brown of the wooden beads. I experimented with adding other accent beads, but kept coming back to the combination of just the two natural materials, side by side. I strung the beads together and thought I had stumbled upon a particularly clever, if simple, design combination.
Then I started to do some research for this week's message to you.
Turquoise jewelry isn't anything new, of course. Turquoise is known to have been mined in the Sinai region as many as 6000 years ago, so 'new' is pretty much ruled out. The ancient Egyptians often used turquoise in jewelry and believed that it was a powerful stone of protection. Turquoise jewelry and other artifacts are commonly found in Egyptian tombs.
I didn't know beforehand, but have since learned that Egyptian tombs also frequently contain items made from Ebony. Boom. There goes my idea of any kind of original pairing. At least I'm in good company (if one can be in the 'good company' of dead people...)
The word "Ebony" comes from the ancient Egyptian "hbny", which then became the Greek "ebenos", which means "fruit of the gods". The Latin name for the Ebony species is Diospyros ebenum.
Believing that ebony was an antidote for poison, people used to carry around their own drinking goblets made of the wood, so that they would be protected should anyone put poison in their drink.
There are many species of ebony which can be found in Ceylon, India, West Africa and throughout Indonesia. The most common, "Gaboon Ebony" is also sometimes referred to as "African Ebony". For those of you who haven't switched to metal drivers yet--here's a bit of trivia you can share at the 19th hole: The North American persimmon bush is a variety of ebony, and is the wood most often used to make the heads of golf clubs.
Ebony trees can grow to a height of 50' with a diameter of of 18" over the course of 100 years. The wood from the outer rings of the trees is a brownish pink that darkens over time, much like cedar does. The inner rings, or "heartwood" is dark brown to black, sometimes with stripes. It is this heartwood that people most frequently think of as ebony, and is what was used to make the black keys on keyboard instruments, the outside of Steinway grand pianos, etc. Very dense and very, very hard, the heartwood can weigh as much as 65 lbs per cubic foot! Pure black ebony is getting harder and harder to find, and wood stains are often used to achieve the look of ebony today.
At any rate....the Gaboon ebony beads I had on hand are not jet black. They are wonderfully rich chocolate brown/black, with subtle bands of lighter brown, which is what drew me to pair them with the brown-matrixed turquoise nuggets.
Chunky necklaces and turquoise are both very popular in fashion this year, so what's old...really, really old...like Egyptian mummy old...is new again. Show your fashion savvy with the Piece of the Week, and walk like an Egyptian! (sorry if you now have The Go-Go's song stuck in your head!).
Don't be mad...just Go-Go to the website for a photo of the Necklace and Earrings! http://www.twowillowsjewelry.com
Until next week--
Kim
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