Narkomanki

Narkomanki is a colloquial name for strings with large, hefty grains and a deliberately loose, roaming set on a long cord, built for sweeping, almost ceaseless telling and showy flips over the hand. The slang name is provocative; aficionados explain it in different ways — most often that such beads are rolled compulsively, on autopilot, for hours, purely for the motor habit — but no one can vouch for the exact etymology, so it is more honest to say they are called this for the hypnotic, absorbing character of the roll. Because of the large grain and long travel they are worked wide and spectacularly: the beads tumble heavily, flip dramatically over the back of the hand and gather real momentum. The sound is full and voluminous, with a weighty low tumble. The model's signature is its emphasised mass and amplitude: these are beads for active, demonstrative handwork, not quiet pocket telling. The format shows best on dense, fairly heavy materials with good momentum — mammoth ivory, dense horn, heavy woods and stone — which take the impact of the flips and deliver that hypnotic run.