Purple Maasai Beaded Necklace, Bracelets & Earrings Set

A five piece Maasai beaded set on lilac purple, with yellow sawtooth points and bands of orange, green, turquoise and yellow. Necklace, three bracelets and earrings. Includes one multi strand collar necklace, three matching bracelets and one pair of drop earrings. Purple is close to unheard of in this kind of beadwork, and lilac more so. The traditional palette runs to red, blue, green, white and black, so a pastel ground like this is a modern choice rather than an old one. That is the reason to buy it. Almost nobody else will be wearing one. It behaves differently from the rest of the range too. Every other set puts bright colour on a strong ground, so the whole piece pushes forward at you. Lilac pulls the other way. The bands still carry orange, green and turquoise, but they sit on something gentle, so this reads as decorative rather than as a statement you have to commit to for the whole evening. The points are picked out in yellow here rather than black, which is unusual. Most of the beadwork in this range uses black to cut the ground. This one uses yellow, so the sawtooth reads as a warm flare instead of a hard edge. It sits well with white, cream, grey, denim and the softer summer colours. Against hard black it loses the point of itself. The necklace is worked in multiple beaded strands and fastens at the back with a gold tone clasp and a short extender chain, so you can set it high on the collarbone or let it drop. The bracelets and earrings carry the same beads in the same colour order, which is what makes five separate pieces read as one set. Wear the necklace with a single bracelet for everyday, or all five pieces when you want the full effect. Strung and bound by hand in Kiambu, so the spacing of the points and the colour bands varies slightly from set to set and from the photographs. Care: keep away from perfume, lotion and water, all of which dull the beads and weaken the cord. Pale grounds mark more easily than dark ones, so put the set on last and take it off first. Store the necklace flat or hanging rather than folded into a box, and wipe with a dry soft cloth after wearing.