Hairpipe Bar Necklace (Ivory and Silver)

These necklaces feature bone hairpipe beads, strung on sparkling chains, and accented with metal beads.

Native people made long tubular beads of bone, shell, copper, and stone before the time of European contact and traded them widely. Because of their unique shape, hairpipe beads were delicate and chipped easily, but were still viewed as valuable possessions and desirable gifts.

Men and women alike incorporated them in personal adornment. Upon early contact, explorers noted that these long pipe-like beads were strung in hair or worn as ear pendants, but they were also used in necklaces - most notably the chokers and breastplates of the Plains tribes. This necklace serves as a modern version, pared down to simplistic elements of beauty.

Designed and made in the Turtle Mountains of North Dakota by Beyond Buckskin owner Jessica R. Metcalfe.

This item ships from the US.