Ao2 - Chetki - black and white ebony

Delving deeper into a hobby often means exploring the roots, and thereby gaining a deep appreciation for traditional forms. Our Podushka chetki exemplify this, with design cues taken from traditional Eastern European chetki. The Pudushka chetki feature rounder, chunkier feeling beads compared to our sportier Remeshoks. The name translates to “pillow” in reference to the comfortably rounded plumpness of the bead shape. The character of this design is similar in spirit to our tradcore begleri series. They have a much more traditional look and feel than our other models, and while they are not as nimble as more contemporary designs, they pay homage to the roots and will give players a chance to appreciate the features that have made chetki a daily companion for so many across Eastern Europe over the years. And as we do, we've put our own special touches into the design, making it recognizably Aroundsquare, while still channeling some traditional design language.

This design, in fact, was purpose built for a handmade manufacturing process. Most of our products are produced by precision CNC machining, with the results being highly uniform. For this project, we wanted to return to a more manual approach that would both honour the traditional roots of the craft, while at the same time highlighting the organic beauty of the natural materials we're using. We have always had a deep respect and appreciation for genuine hand-work, and we took opportunity to design a thicker and more forgiving shape that would embrace the slight irregularities that occur during hand work. The results are beautiful, and the slight differences in the individual beads fits very nicely with the natural grain and feel of the material. 

The beads themselves are generously rounded for easy movement and high comfort during play, including bead counting. In addition, we've sized up the thickness of the lengthy end beads a little bit in order to give them a bit more heft, and a bit more "catch" on the fingers, in order to keep them anchored in the hand during play. And of course, with longevity and easy maintenance in mind, we've strung these up on our 1.2mm kevlar cord.

Note: Expect some variability in the beads in this series. The natural material beads in this series are hand-shaped, rather than precision CNC machined like most of our products. We've chosen this production method purposefully, as it fits so well with the natural variations of these materials. The result is that each bead is slightly unique, and there will be small variations in shape and size, rounding, finishing, and of course internal variations in the material itself. This is intentional, and is a feature we adore in these sets. We have manually inspected each piece and discarded beads where variations have been too high, or of the type that might negatively impact your experience.