I am a big fan of pusiostoma and I am not the only one. They pop up in adornments from South Morocco throughout the Western Sahara, usually dispersed in between other beads and pendants. After so many years of collecting the solitary ones, I was pleasantly surprised to see these
'rescued' Peul/Fulani temple pendants. Why rescued? Well traders buy the shells by piece, but they are often strung and rolled up in these balls the Fulani use as temple decoration. No one knows how many shells there are in one such ball, so sellers cut them up. I was lucky our friend was in time to stop the trader from doing so.
Happy girl! Hope you enjoy them too.
Length including the vaseline beads = 85 mm