White Copper Five Jambhalas Totem Spacer

Whether to add spacer beads is a question of taste. A spacer separates the main beads on a strand, sitting slightly smaller and often in a different material, and its job is punctuation. A strand of one material in one size grows dull to look at, and two spacers wake it up. They usually sit either side of the guru bead, or as a pair every so many beads. Size them one or two millimetres below the main beads; larger and they steal attention from what they are meant to separate. A symmetric pair, one on each side, is the common arrangement.

The Five Routes of Wealth is a folk scheme organised by direction: Bi Gan in the east, Guan Yu in the west, Chai Rong in the south, Zhao Gongming in the north and Wang Hai at the centre. Bi Gan had no heart, which is taken to mean he is impartial; Guan Yu stands for righteousness; Zhao Gongming is the martial wealth god of the Zhengyi Xuantan; Wang Hai is the patron of traders; Chai Rong is Emperor Shizong of the Later Zhou, honoured in folk practice as the southern wealth god. There is more than one scheme, and some substitute another name for Chai Rong, the account varying by region. Wang Hai drove oxen and is a trade deity among the ancestors of the Shang. Only gathered together do the five make a set.

This series issues only four: Bi Gan, Wang Hai, Zhao Gongming and Guan Yu, with no Chai Rong for the south. To complete the five, source another bead, or use four and take the meaning of the four directions; missing one is not a fault. Before buying, count how many your strand needs, and measure the diameter of the main beads. Four will do, and so will five, depending on the length of the strand.

The hole has to run true. A crooked channel makes the cord turn and the bead sits askew. White copper holes can be reamed, but reaming raises burrs at the edge, so dress them with a fine file before threading; a burr is easy to feel with a fingertip. The hole should be slightly larger than the cord: too tight and it will not pass, too loose and the bead rattles. Open it with a tapered reamer, a little at a time. Don't open it all the way in one pass; try threading between passes.

The silver-coloured versions are cool and the gold ones warm, and the two should not be mixed on one strand, since the light differs and the result looks muddled. Copper oxidises, and spacers sandwiched between main beads take a lot of friction, so their polished faces go matte first. To keep them bright, take them off at intervals and wipe them separately, and store the whole strand in a bag when it isn't worn, since copper minds damp. Once the positions are set, don't move them often; copper does not take kindly to repeated restringing. On a hand that sweats, copper darkens faster.