Beadwork panel ornaments for ceremonial sword and sheath. Nigeria, 19th -20th centuries.
Copyright Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, acc. no. 1993.500.1.
Beadwork, often also called beading, is the general term used to describe the craft of working with beads in some manner, in order to produce a decoration or decorative item. The beads may be worked in a variety of techniques, such as being strung together on a cord, thread or wire; sewn down onto a ground material; woven together on a loom (on-loom work) or stitched together in the hand (off-loom work) in some manner.
Beadwork has been carried out for thousands of years all over the world and there are many different traditional as well as modern forms.
See also: shell beadwork; southern Sinai woman's faceveil
Metropolitan Museum of Art online catalogue (retrieved 9 July 2016).
GVE
