Hey team! We are back at it again with some more killer beads after a relaxing spring break hiatus. This month we’re looking at the great country of Greece and their traditional worry beads, also known as Komboloi beads. These beads are rumored to have originated in the grand mountains of Greece, made by monks and used for prayer as a precursor to the rosary. Almost like a beaded bracelet, a traditional Komboloi features an odd number of beads, usually any multiple of 4 + 1 extra, as well as a large charm that cinches the two ends of the string together.
These images from the Greek Komboloi Museum showcase the kind of structure I’m talking about, including an empty stretch of string for your funny little fingers. For my beads, I decided I wanted to make my charm a little more detailed to make up for the fact that I’m basically just making 22 copies of the same tiny sphere otherwise. For some inspiration, I looked up which Greek god is responsible for ceramic affairs, and lo and behold! It’s Athena! More generally known as the goddess of strategy, Athena is one of the coolest Greek gods and also Annabeth Chase’s mom.
In my research it seemed like these beads were typically made out of coral (reasonable for someone in the Mediterranean, not so much for Milo of North Carolina), but I thought I might pay homage to the other illustrious materials used for Komboloi by trying to make amber-adjacent beads!
I hope to get crackin’ on these beads this week and I can only pray that making an owl out of clay is not as hard as I fear it may be. See you all later this month with the results!!