ArtFire

Old copper beads from the Middle East are strung with African resin amber and bone. The terminals -- end pieces -- are also copper and fashioned in the distinctive manner of North Africa and Yemen. They are hollow and were fabricated as smooth, but time has put some wrinkles into their skin. The beads are evidently of some age, but I don't know when they were actually made. The necklace chain is handmade of silver? or silver-plated brass?, but I replaced the wire hook fastener with an antiqued silver plated lobster claw clasp.

The Africans do not undervalue the beauty of handmade glass or resin beads. First of all, they know first-hand that glass is made of natural stuff. It is essentially cooked sand. The difference comes when the melted sand is shaped into something beautiful. Many resins, too, are natural products. For the most prized beads, the resin is ancient fossilized amber from the Baltic. In Africa and South Arabia, a younger fossil amber is used and I have come to prefer it. It is more opaque and is usually formed into larger barrel shaped beads, very unlike the delicate, transparent honey amber from the Baltic.

African amber often contains some natural fossil amber with synthetic resins added to it to extend it. This method allows the material to be shaped in large blocky beads, large round beads, and large barrel or oval beads. Some of the Yemen amber beads in my collection are 1 inch cubes in a dark caramel color.
The particular synthetic beads in this piece are dyed red and have transparent streaks in the opaque resin.

The necklace is 24 inches long.

The diameter of the amber beads is 22 mm.

Only the necklace is for sale. Other objects are props.

Copper, resin amber, bone

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On certain items, the shipping will be free.



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Judaica