The Zulu Collection

South African Zulu jewelry is rich in traditional and cultural meaning. There is meaning behind the colors and shapes of jewelry. Typically, older sisters pass down the tradition to their younger sisters. Although men are not involved in making bead jewelry, they do wear beads.

Zulu beadwork conveys communication between the sexes as it relates to relationships; design, geometric shape and colors combined convey a message of marital status and gender. For example, a triangle with the tip pointing up means a woman is not married. For men, if the tip is pointing down it means he is unmarried.  Married women wear two triangles together in the shape of a diamond, which is a universal fertility symbol in Zulu culture. For married men, two tips of the triangle meet to form an hourglass shape.