Chocolate Truffles, Fine Chocolate Gifts, Chocolate Covered Pretzels, Caramels, Chocolate Wedding & Party Favors, and other fine collectibles!
Specialty Collection
Truffles Collection
Chocolate Treats
Caramels
Organic Nuts
Bakery Collection
Copyright © 2011 Ashanti Chocolat. All Rights Reserved
Adwera Soaps
Accessories
Gifts
History.... Trade beads are usually associated with West Africa where they are usually found, but they were originally created in Venice, Bohemia, and Holland. The history of trade beads dates back to the end of the fifteenth century when Portuguese trading ships arrived on the coast of West Africa to exploit its many resources, including gold, slaves, ivory, and palm oil. In those days, beads were a major component of the currency exchanged for people and products.
Over the four centuries that followed, millions of beads were traded to Africa, and by the nineteenth century, European bead makers were producing a wide variety of designs specifically for the African trade, such as millefiori, chevrons, striped melons, feather, and eye beads. For over 1,000, these beads have made by crushing glass to a fine powder that is then heated and poured into clay molds, with a cassava leaf stem used to make the hole and baked.
Over the four centuries that followed, millions of beads were traded to Africa, and by the nineteenth century, European bead makers were producing a wide variety of designs specifically for the African trade, such as millefiori, chevrons, striped melons, feather, and eye beads. For over 1,000, these beads have made by crushing glass to a fine powder that is then heated and poured into clay molds, with a cassava leaf stem used to make the hole and baked.
Sweet mango, bursting with wonderfully intense flavor layered over a bed of sweet curry cream in a beautiful handpainted shell. Each morsel is a jewel in its own right; from the delicacy of the casing to the heavenly flavors inside.
West African Trade Beads
$26.00
