Personally, I feel it may be a big mistake to restring this necklace. And I would ask what others think first. As a collectible, it should remain as close to original as possible. There is history in the original beadwork which has integrity as is.

The necklace is literally falling apart, though, with many breaks, missing beads, plus most of the back section as well as the clasp is missing, and the wood spacer bars are all broken. The outer strand with small bells is 90% missing.

If it were in better condition I'd agree that repairing just the broken stringing would be appropriate. But I decided to re-string the entire piece with new spacer bars (which I will match as closely as possible to the originals, using dyed bamboo strips), while keeping the original patterns, and then adding to the ends so I can also add a clasp.

It won't be the original any more, but I will be preserving the beads and the pattern of the original piece.

Sorry if that disappoints anyone!

Hi Rosanna,

I suppose you did not intend "macramé" literally, but probably meant knotting. Macramé is based on two specific knots—the half-hitch and square knot, tied around drag lines. Anything else is not macramé, though many people use that name when they mean "fancy knotting." And many pieces that include macramé can also include other knotting skills. I combine techniques constantly.

When the Nagas (mainly Konyaks) want to form an ending to a multi-strand necklace or girdle, what they typically do is begin at one end, and tie two strands together. Then one or both strands are tied to the next line, and one line is allowed to drop out—and it continues across until all the strands are tied together. Then they reverse, and so the same thing in the other direction. This builds up a rectangular pad, that then (usually) connects to a closure (as simple as a loop and button, though also more ornate choices). They also reduce the number of knots in subsequent rows, resulting in a pad that is trapezoidal.

It has been a very long time since I took apart and reproduced a Konyak fiber ending. I cannot be more specific than the above. By which I mean I cannot tell you the specific knot they usually used.

Jamey

Thanks, Jamie - your comment makes one of the replies I got from a macrame person make more sense- that the finishing looked like some sort of crochet rather than macrame. And, the various pictures of tapered macrame knots (half hitches and square knots) I've found do not resemble the Naga work.

Since one side of the knotted section is badly damaged, I am teasing it apart to see how it was done. Slowly making headway. It does appear that 10 of the strands from the 21 strand section have been tied off in the knotted section but I'm still exploring the knot work itself.

It is an interesting project overall - from my visit to Nishedha, I got the excellent idea to recreate the spacer bars from thin strips of bamboo, which I now have (flat barbecue skewers!). They need to be cut and sanded, then drilled, and dyed dark brown, but I think they will look very similar to the originals. I think I can restore one of the partially missing strands by stealing beads from adjacent strands. The two sides of the necklace are not the same length, so making them match will release enough beads to work with. Also I purchased some 0.5 mm natural hemp cord which also looks close to the color and texture of the original cotton cord - which was probably very white to start with but I did not want to use stark white for obvious aesthetic reasons.

Back in the late 1980s, in describing the closures of typical Konyak multi-strand necklaces, I remarked that the knot work resembled crochet, though made very differently.

In the early '90s, when fake Naga stuff was generated (I suppose mainly in Indian factories), among the first pieces were multi-strand necklaces, that were immediately misrepresented as being "Naga." I was not in the least surprised, when I had an opportunity to examine some of these, that the fiber closure WAS a crocheted panel—into which the strands of seedbeads had been sewn. I predicted this would happen (!).

This is the primary way to distinguish between an authentic Naga piece, and a factory-made imitation, of that class of necklace.

Good luck with your project. I will be interested to see it.

JDA.