Mr. Ferry has a reputation for being the largest-volume bead seller in Bali, dealing with ancient and modern beads. He is a native of Sumatra, and at the time of our visit was home attending to his mother, who was ill. In his stead, Mrs. Ferry, his wife, helped us, and allowed us to explore the bead inventory.

We did not buy many beads at this time, because we were essentially on our way to Java, where we expected to buy directly from the makers. So I'll show a couple of images here, but I'll hold off on the later purchases until the end.

Here's a photo of me standing in front of Ferry's sign, adjacent to his home and offices.

The gold bead seen here is very similar to one made famous by the book Manik-Manik di Indonesia [Indonesian Beads], co-written by my acquaintance Sumara Adhyatman. It is a beautiful, but not exactly fine, rendering in gold foil over a wood (? - or something) base. Old and ancient metal beads in Indonesia are often not particularly well-made—but they have great character, are not common, and are usually pricey.

JDA.