I have always found it magical, the way that certain plants have managed to charm and embed their way into cultures around the world. I’ve wondered how knowledge of their care has been shared, imagining the conversations and oral traditions that passed their stories from one generation to the next.

As a gardener and botanical jewelry artist, I am a participant in this tradition. I have been charmed by a widely cultivated plant known as coix lacryma-jobi. Beads from this plant are popular in adornments around the world because they can be strung right after removing from the mother plant. Each coix seed is unique in size and shape; they are similar but different, like siblings.

Read on to learn how to cultivate and make jewelry with this beloved and culturally important plant.

The Story of Coix

Coix lacryma-jobi—also called Job’s tears for the shiny, tear-shaped “seeds” it produces—is an edible and medicinal plant in the grass family (Poaceae). The part generally referred to as a seed is an involucre, a tough hard shell that holds the seed grain inside. When you remove it from the mother plant you will see a hole in the center, perfectly made for stringing: a botanical jewelry-maker’s dream.

Job’s tears growing in the Herb Garden at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Photo by Michael Stewart.

Coix lacryma-jobi has been cultivated for food and medicine for thousands of years. Native to Southeast Asia, it was eventually brought to Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Today it can be found all over the world, and the story of coix is entwined with religion, symbolism, folklore, cultural rituals, and culinary and medicinal traditions wherever it grows.

For example, coix lacryma-jobi is used in Ayurveda and in Traditional Chinese Medicine to treat a variety of ailments. In Laos, where the plant is called deuay, grains of the edible variety (Coix lacryma-jobi var. ma yuen) are boiled and sold at roadside stalls as a snack. In Japan, coix seeds are called juzudama, a reference to their use as Buddhist prayer beads. 

Coix seeds are also used as Catholic rosary beads, and play a special role in Louisiana Cajun culture. In West Africa, the seeds are woven into macramé and wrapped around dried gourds to craft a shekere, a musical instrument that makes sounds similar to a maraca. Members of the Cherokee Nation use coix seeds, known as corn beads, to make jewelry and textiles; these cherished plants are said to have sprouted where tears of Cherokee people fell along the Trail of Tears. Coix seeds have also been used to make jewelry throughout Latin America, where the plants are known as Lágrimas de San Pedro.

How to Grow and Harvest

Here in Brooklyn, in USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 7B, coix lacryma-jobi is considered an annual plant. Its seeds can survive under the protection of mulch and sprout the following spring. It is not particular about soil, but requires full to partial sun.

You can purchase coix lacryma-jobi seeds from online vendors like Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. (You may want to avoid growing this plant, or grow it in a container, if you live in a region where it is considered invasive, such as Hawai’i, Puerto Rico, or Mexico.)

You can start seeds indoors in winter, six weeks before the last frost date, or direct sow outdoors in early spring. To start indoors, soak seeds overnight in tepid water before planting in a tray. When nighttime temperatures stay above 50 degrees, you can transplant them.

A green grass-like plant with thick leaves and teardrop-shaped small fruits, some black and others green or purple-ish.
The seeds are ready to harvest when they turn black, tan, or gray in late summer through mid-fall. Photo via Flickr / Forest and Kim Starr.

To direct sow in spring, place seeds in the soil about 1/2-inch deep and 10–12 inches apart. Keep moist until they start to sprout 7–21 days after planting. Coix doesn’t need a lot of water, but it likes moist soil, so water more frequently during hot summer days.

It will start to produce seeds in July through November. Leave green seeds alone. Once they turn black, tan, or gray, they are ready to harvest. Simply pull each seed from the stem. Your beads are ready for stringing!

Tip: White seeds with no luster are past harvest and too brittle for jewelry making.

DIY Hoop Earrings

Below is a simple earring design that requires only a few tools and materials. This design gives you the flexibility to combine any number of coix seeds with any small beads you prefer for endless unique combinations. 

A variety of beaded earrings and jewelry-making tools are laid out on a cork board next to a box of multi-colored thread.

Note that the term “seed bead” refers to generic small beads used to make jewelry—not to be confused with your coix beads!

(Photography by Jeremy Weine.) 

Tools and Materials:

  • Coix lacryma-jobi seeds
  • Big eye needle or sewing needle
  • Thread (nylon, upholstery, silk; color of choice)
  • 11 seed beads, size 6 or 8 (or any size bead you want)
  • Scissors
  • 2 ear wires
  • Tweezers
  • Glue (optional)

Instructions:

  1. Cut a 24-inch or longer piece of thread with scissors. String thread through your big eye needle.
  2. Add a seed bead. Leave a long tail of thread and go back through this bead twice. (This is a stopper bead; it will prevent your beaded pattern from sliding off the thread while you work on your design.)
  3. Slide a coix lacryma-jobi bead and one seed bead on to needle and thread. Repeat pattern seven times.
  4. When you complete the pattern, add five seed beads. (This will be the dangly part of your earring.)
  5. Pick up an ear wire and pass your needle through the ring at the base. Repeat, making two loops. Tie knot.
  6. Continue threading your needle through the five seed beads and then thread needle back to the first coix seed you strung; this forms the hoop. Make a knot.
  7. Continue going back through the beads, tying a few knots in between beads, as you thread back to the 5 seed beads.
    Two hands hold a dangly beaded earring while one hand threads a wire through one of the beads.
  8. Make a knot. Go back up through the ring at the base of your ear wire and one final time back down through the 5 seed beads. Tie a knot here. This reinforces your work and prevents thread from getting loose.
  9. Take scissors and cut the end of your thread. Place a tiny dab of glue here.
    A hand cuts a piece of black thread attached to a circular piece of beaded jewelry.
  10. Remove stopper bead and cut thread. You have completed your earrings!

    11. A hand holds a dangly earring with five small gold beads followed by a circular section of gold and gray alternating beads.

Tip: Use tweezers to remove any fibers that prevent your needle from piercing through coix seeds.

How to care for your earrings

  • Avoid contact with water. You don’t want your beads to suddenly sprout!
  • Avoid spraying perfume while wearing.
  • Avoid extended sun exposure. Colors may fade and pieces can dry and crack in high temperatures.
  • Clean every so often with a soft dry cloth.
  • Store in a dry, cool place.