There are so many wonderful beads and necklaces I really envy the owners of these gorgeous pieces.On my blog I want to share with you some of my 'finds' and hopefully to give you some help and advice on looking after these beads.
etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/mybeadyeye
Sometimes I see nice beads on ebay and these yellow and black and green ones came with a box of of odds and ends I bought for £10. I had to restring a bracelet someone bought off me a few years back this week and I got hold of some very good quality leather so I thought that I would use this with my ebay beads and a few of my very old beads from Ghana.
Just put 3 of these in my etsy shop today and I'm quite pleased with how they look.
A car boot find -sometimes I strike lucky!
I was very lucky to pick up this fine necklace of amber beads from a car boot sale for just 50p ! Many of my customers send me amber beads to restring and often asking me to test the beads to see if they are real amber.
Many pieces of so called amber are in fact made from resin which often has bits of insects stirred into it! To make it look genuine.Lots of the cheap amber jewellery on ebay is fake so look for a good supplier or test before you buy.
I use the paper test to detect fakes. I rub the bead well on some clothing then see if it will pick up a tiny piece of paper.You can also try to put the bead in a glass of salt water.
Amber will float whereas plastic/resin beads will sink.
I've just finished restringing these fabulous beads for a regular client who lives in Morocco.
She regularly buys these old necklaces that are using on plain parcel string or fishing line which is dirt cheap but not a good restringing material as it becomes brittle with age and breaks.
I added an old section of German Silver chain which I took from a broken Yemeni necklace German silver has a low silver content as was used for a lot of jewllery all over Africa.
Not beads this time but I just could not resist buying these onyx grapes when I saw them in a local market.
Onyx is a banded variety of the oxide mineral chalcedony. Agate and onyx are both varieties of layered chalcedony that differ only in the form of the bands: agate has curved bands and onyx has parallel bands. The colors of its bands range from white to almost every color (save some shades, such as purple or blue). Commonly, specimens of onyx contain bands of black and/or white.
This is one of a set of necklaces I was sent to restring and it contains extremely old Indian Agate beads.
The art of making traditional Kiffa beads is gone. Such beads were originally made in Kiffa, Mauritania. They were used as hair adornments by Kiffa women. Nobody is really certain of the age of this period of Kiffa bead making. Most of the experts in this field date it to the early 1900 s through to the 1940 s.
Traditional Kiffa beads were individually produced by hand, with a central core made out of various materials. This core was sometimes made from dark gray powdered glass and sometimes non-glass materials. Using a needle and spit, tiny portions of red or blue or yellow or white powdered glass were laboriously applied to the bead core. This was done over and over again until the beads were totally covered with this outer layer of powdered glass. The semi-finished beads were then "cooked" over outdoor open fires until the powdered glass fused.
I recently came across cork thread for jewellery.it only comes in wide sizes and would not be awfully bendy but I can see it really working well for certain types of bracelets and necklaces.
This is where to buy it
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/386250558/portuguese-cork-round-5mm-light-green?ref=shop_home_active_9
Wonderful old chevrons and other beads.
Not old beads but these Turquoise are so lovely I would dearly like to have anything as beautiful in my collection.
Getting around to adding some more items to my shop on etsy. If you see something you would like to buy you can buy directly from me if you don't have an etsy account.Email me for details mybeadyeyeinfo@gmail.com
I actually got some time last week to make a few new bracelets.The bright colours of my beads really cheered up a grey Cornish Winter day!
Some of the bracelets are a large size as last time that I did a craft fair several men said they would have liked to buy one but they were too small for them.
One of the bracelets has a Cornish Slate button which I bought at a fair a few years ago.I've used them all now and really need to look out for more.
This goes way beyond a beaded necklace! Not sure how long it would take to make it but probably about 2/3 days? http://www.atelierfiftyfive.com/home/category/accessories/5
There are some absolutely stunning designs on atelierfiftyfive.com
