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Thai Karen Hilltribe Silver Beads
Karen Silver beads originate in Northern Thailand and are all made by the Karen people. In the Northern Thailand hills, small villages of the Karen (Kariang, Karean) Hilltribes produce beautiful handmade silver beads and other jewelry components. The Karen Hill Tribe craftsmen “own” their individual designs and personally handcraft each silver bead that is made in their own particular design. Because each piece is individually handmade by the local people, Silver work provides much needed income to the Karen villages. It also enhances community life, as villagers don't have to leave their village or the area to find jobs. By purchasing jewelry that incorporates Hilltribe Silver, you are supporting the skills and livelihoods of many Northern Thailand families and communities. When you buy multiples of a particular bead style, you are getting beads made by one family in a particular village.
As each bead is handmade, every piece is unique and will have slight variation in size, weight and silver purity. Thai Hill tribes use a higher content of silver 99.2% - 99.9% Fine silver is more pliable, workable, and more receptive to the type of design tools used by Hill tribe craftsmen. Sterling Silver (which is only 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper), is too hard to be used to produce the Karen beads with their original tools and simple technology. The Thai silver is softer because it does not have the other metal additives for hardness that sterling has, and as such, will tarnish more slowly than sterling silver due to it's higher silver content.