The Chevron Bead is one my favorite of the African Trade Beads. Each bead carries its own story. You wear history when you were trade beads around your neck.
Wikipeid describes the Chevron Beads:
"Chevron beads are special glass beads, the first specimens of this type were created by glass bead makers in Venice and Murano, Italy, towards the end of the 14th century. They may also be referred to as Rosetta, or star beads.
"Venetian chevron beads are drawn beads, made from glass canes which are created in specifically constructed star moulds. By the beginning of the 20th century, 4 and 6-layer chevron beads appear on various sample cards. According to records kept at the Societa Veneziana Conterie of Murano, they stopped making chevron canes during the 1950s. Chevron beads are still being made in Venice today, in very small quantities only. Venetian chevron beads have been traded throughout the world, most heavily in West Africa, where they were first introduced by Dutch merchants in the late 15th century. Certain very small sized 7 layer Venetian chevron beads, also made during the late 1400s, are found exclusively in the Americas, mainly in Peru, and attributed to having been introduced by Christopher Columbus. Chevron beads are very popular collectors' items and they are still highly valued in present day West Africa, where they continue to be worn for prestige and ceremonial purposes, and occasionally buried with the dead." 
You can wear these old Chevron Beads on cords as a single bead and they still make a statement. Being that they are drawn beads they normally have a large enough whole that you can use all types of stinging material.
This Contemporary Chevron was made by the chevron pioneer, American Bead Maker Art Seymour. Wearing an Art Seymour Chevron also makes a statement. His beads are well known around the world in bead collector circles.
I have several Chevrons on my web store this month and this Art Seymour bead is one of them.