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About this product –  Cowri  Jewellery

Handcrafted Opera necklace made with jute and cowrie shells. The wrapping technique has been used along the length of the necklace with jute string. The clustered cowrie shell tassels complete the look creating a unique and exquisite piece.

Cowry or cowrie have historically been used as a currency in several parts of the world, but today extensively for jewelry and for other decorative and ceremonial purposes. Cowry shells are viewed as symbols of womanhood. fertility, birth, and wealth. In the above cowry shell motifs, each shell flower is made with five shells bound together with a jute cord to create a decorative shell motif. These motifs can be used for various craftwork, to decorate bags, gift boxes.

Shell description 

The shells of cowries are usually smooth and shiny and more or less egg-shaped. The round side of the shell is called the Dorsal Face, whereas the flat under side is called the Ventral Face, which shows a long, narrow, slit-like opening , which is often toothed at the edges. The narrower end of the egg-shaped cowrie shell is the anterior end, and the broader end of the shell is called the posterior. The spire of the shell is not visible in the adult shell of most species, but is visible in juveniles, which have a different shape from the adults.

Nearly all cowries have a porcelain-like shine, with some exceptions such as Hawaii’s granulated cowrie, Nucleolaria granulata. Many have colorful patterns. Lengths range from 5 mm for some species up to 19 cm for the Atlantic deer cowrie, Macrocypraea cervus.

The cowrie was the shell most widely used worldwide as shell money. It is most abundant in the Indian Ocean, and was collected in the Maldive Islands, in Sri Lanka, along the Malabar coast India, in Borneo and on other East Indian islands, and in various parts of the African coast from Ras Hafun to Mozambique. Cowrie shell money was important in the trade networks of Africa, South Asia, and East Asia.

Some species in the family Ovulidae are also often referred to as cowries. In the British Isles the local Trivia species (family Triviidae, species Trivia monacha and Trivia arctica) are sometimes called cowries. The Ovulidae and the Triviidae are somewhat closely related to Cypraeidae.

cowri Jewellery

Cowrie shells are also worn as jewelry or otherwise used as ornaments or charms. In Mende culture, cowrie shells are viewed as symbols of womanhood, fertility, birth and wealth.Its underside is supposed, by one modern ethnographic author, to represent a vulva or an eye.

On the Fiji Islands, a shell of the golden cowrie or bulikula, Cypraea aurantium, was drilled at the ends and worn on a string around the neck by chieftains as a badge of rank.The women of Tuvalu use cowrie and other shells in traditional handicrafts.

Ritual use

The Ojibway aboriginal people in North America use cowrie shells which are called sacred Miigis Shells or white shells in Midewiwin ceremonies, and the Whiteshell Provincial Park in Manitoba, Canada is named after this type of shell. There is some debate about how the Ojibway traded for or found these shells, so far inland and so far north, very distant from the natural habitat. Oral stories and birch bark scrolls seem to indicate that the shells were found in the ground, or washed up on the shores of lakes or rivers. Finding the cowrie shells so far inland could indicate the previous use of them by an earlier tribe or group in the area, who may have obtained them through an extensive trade network in the ancient past.In Brazil, as a result of the Atlantic slave trade from Africa, cowrie shells (called búzios) are also played as used to consult the Orixás divinities and hear their replies.

Cowrie shells were among the devices used for divination by the Kaniyar Panicker astrologers of Kerala, India.

In certain parts of Africa, cowries were prized charms, and they were said to be associated with fecundity, sexual pleasure and good luck.