Each of these ten beads is superbly hand-carved with a dragon surrounded by clouds. The material used is the kernel of a Chinese ‘gânlan’ fruit which is a very hard material allowing the artist to carve these beads in very fine detail. Each bead is signed with the name Hong Yuan (鸿源) who must have been very proud of his creations. A Chinese Dragon symbolizes Benevolence, Prosperity, Longevity and Fertility. Clouds, sometimes referred to as ‘Auspicious clouds’ or ‘xiangyun’ (祥云), represent ‘Good luck’ as the Chinese word for Cloud, ‘yun’ ( 云) is pronounced the same as ‘yun’ (运) meaning ‘Luck’ or ‘Fortune’. Total length approximately 32 cm. Bead length 3.3 cm. Diameter 1.6 cm.