India — Pterocarpus Santalinus Bracelet, Furniture Grade, Gold Fleck

Pterocarpus santalinus — red sandalwood — is one of the most regulated timber species on earth.

Red sandalwood (Pterocarpus santalinus) grows almost exclusively in the Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is not related to fragrant sandalwood — it has no significant scent — but its heartwood produces one of the deepest, most saturated reds in the natural world, darkening to near-black with age. The tree grows slowly: a trunk large enough for furniture-grade timber takes over a hundred years to develop. International trade is heavily restricted under CITES. The material that exists in circulation now is what remains from before the restrictions tightened.

The gold fleck variety — jinxing in Chinese — refers to wood where the medullary rays, the cellular structures that run perpendicular to the growth rings, catch light and appear as bright gold streaks across the surface. In furniture-grade timber, these flecks are dense and evenly distributed. The same quality appears in the finest pieces of Ming Dynasty furniture now held in museum collections. The wood was considered so valuable that it was reserved for imperial use.

These beads are cut from furniture-grade red sandalwood — the density and gold fleck distribution consistent across the strand. The surface has been lightly finished to show the grain without obscuring it. The red deepens with handling. In ten years, these beads will be darker than they are today.

Origin: Andhra Pradesh, India · Eastern Ghats
Material: Pterocarpus santalinus, furniture grade, gold fleck variety
Type: Bracelet

One piece only. What you see is what ships.