They had an average length of five millimetres with a diameter of four millimetres. In New York, the Seneca's increased the fabrication of the beads now measuring seven millimetres in length by five millimetres in diameter, with drilled holes of just less than two millimetres (Prindle, 1994-2003).
The Naragansett and Pequot Indians controlled both the fabrication and the trade of wampum. However, by the 1700's, Dutch Europeans began to take over. They started making the beads in large quantities in factories such as the Campbell wampum factory in New York. There were four species of Whelk used to fabricate the white wampum beads. They where: The Channelled Whelk, the Lightning Whelk, the Knobbed Whelk, as well as the Snow Whelk. Mercinaria mercinaria' was the only species of Quahog that was accepted make the purple wampum beads (Prindle, 1994-2003).
The Whelk and Quahog shells were gathered in the summer and transformed into belts, necklaces, earings, capes, girdles, aprons, as well as various other items, during the long winter months when there was less farm work to be done (Scozzari, 2003). To wear, bore or grind these shells using only machines was impossible due to their incredible hardness and brittleness (Prindle, 1994-2003).
Francis Jennings describes the process used to create the wampum beads as follows:.
The drill was made from an untempered handsaw, ground into proper shape and tempered in the flame of a candle. Braced against a steel plate on the operator's chest and nicely adjusted to the center of the shell, the drill was rotated by means of the common hand-bow. To clean the aperture (hole), the drill was dexterously withdrawn while in motion, and was cleared by the thumb and finger of the particles of shell. From a vessel hanging over the closely clamped shell drops of water fell on the drill to cool it, for particular care was exercised lest the shell break from the heat caused by friction (1976, as cited in Prindle, 1994-2003).
