These powder glass tribal bead strands are made by village people in Ghana, Africa, using the same technique that has been used in Africa for centuries. The beads are often called prayer or worry beads and are used in meditation to count repetitions of prayers and devotions, or hung on a wall or set on table for protection from negative energy and to relieve stress.
The powder glass beads are made by crushing recycled glass to a fine powder and heating it so that the particles fuse together. The glass is then poured into clay molds with a cassava leaf stem used to make the hole. They are baked in an oven and the glass fuses. The cassava stem burns up and the beads are removed from the oven and allowed to cool down slowly. They are then hand-strewn onto a string and fiber twine.