Job’s Tears is a tall tropical cereal grain-bearing perennial of the grass family, native to southeast Asia. In other places around the world it is cultivated in gardens as an annual. It is an edible grain and in Asian supermarkets, it is commonly sold as Chinese pearl barley, although it is not closely related to barley.
The variety of Job’s Tears we grow in our garden grows to about a metre in height and produces hard shelled, tear-drop or oval seed structures. As they mature to blue-black in colour, we harvest them. When they are picked from the stems of the plant, leaves a small hole in the base of the seed, which comes in very handy for jewelry making. As these seeds dry the colour changes from the blue-black to grey or taupe shade. No polishing is required as Mother Nature’s looks after that also.
The name Job’s Tears also refers to the biblical man, Job, of the Old Testament who endured great suffering. They have been used in making jewelry for hundreds of years, more commonly in Roseries. We have created unique pieces of jewelry from these seed beads, such as earrings, bracelets and necklaces.
Job’s Tears are Mother Nature’s most perfect bead for making jewelry or in crafts.