Kantha Patchwork Bead Hoop Earrings

• Individually hand-wrapped fabric beads
• Mixed kantha prints and colors
• Lightweight wood bead cores
• Gold-tone hook closure
• No two beads or pairs alike

Every bead is wrapped by hand from a scrap of recycled textile, so the color and pattern mix on your pair will vary slightly from the one pictured.

Kantha is a running-stitch quilting tradition from the Bengal region, spanning eastern India and Bangladesh, in which worn cotton saris and dhotis are layered and restitched into new cloth rather than discarded. These earrings carry the same reuse logic in a different form: instead of quilting the fabric flat, artisans cut it into small scraps and wrap each one around a wooden bead, so leftover prints get a second life as jewelry.

Because the cloth comes from many different saris, no two beads match. A single hoop might carry a stripe, a floral, a paisley and a solid color side by side. The open circle is there to let that patchwork be seen in the round.

Women artisans in India sort usable scraps, cut small squares, and wrap each one taut around a wood core so the surface sits smooth and the edges don't fray. The beads are threaded and linked with jump rings, finished with two plain wood beads near the top and a gold-tone hook.

• Technique: Kantha textile, fabric-wrapped bead work

Store dry and keep away from water, perfume and lotion to preserve the fabric wrap and gold-tone finish.