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About
Why Chinaberries?
When I was young, I spent lots of time at my paternal grandparents' house. They had a massive garden and I loved being outside with them learning to plant, water, and harvest with them. I learned about composting, raise earthworms, how to identify birds by their calls. I would swing in the giant Burr oak tree my dad planted when he was young and stretch to touch the leaves with my toes. Their home was a treasure trove of wonderful childhood memories.
One of the other things my Memaw taught me was that you could harvest the seeds of the Chinaberry tree and make beads from them. This intrigued me, but I never got the chance to do this with her. My grandmother's brain started to deteriorate from Alzheimer around the time I entered my teens. I watched her slowly slip away for about 10 years until she passed away in the fall of 2000. Every time I saw a Chinaberry tree I would think of Memaw and think about the the project we never did...
Years passed, I started a family of my own, and life was busy ... until March of 2020 when the world stopped with the Pandemic. There "happened" to be a Chinaberry tree just above the deck of our home and it just "happened" to be dropping it's berries. I had the time and it was time to give this a try ...
With my sentimental attachment and admiration for these pervasive Central Texas trees, I delved in to learn more about them. Melia azedarach, commonly known here as "Chinaberry" trees were actually native to Southeast Asia. In India, they are known as "Umbrella Trees, Persian Lilacs, or Bead-trees” and though most parts of the tree are toxic, in the right proportions, their properties have been used for Ayurvedic medicines. They were introduced at some point to North America as ornamental trees, but have become now considered as an invasive species and a "trash tree" by most. I was determined to find the beauty within these trash trees.
The Process
The pungent berry flesh must be boiled, and removed from the seed within. Then they are left to dry for storage or prepared for dyeing. Each seed has a fluted appearance and a fuzzy, almost "velvet" look to them. The dye is accepted differently by each bead which lends a unique element to every single piece. The whole process to prepare the beads is labor intensive and takes a few days for each batch.
The Dye's the Limit
The possibilities of color and style are only limited by the imagination and the combination of colors! Each piece is dyed, hand-sorted by color, designed and strung by the artist to create the most elegant designs possible. Custom colors and styles are available. Please note that exact color reproduction varies with the batch.