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Mystery Bead Contest - May 2010 Please study this bead carefully and identify it.Bring your answer to our next meeting of the Bead Society of Los Angeles, and you could be eligible to win a prize!
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How the Contest Works: Each month, the Bead Society will post a picture of a "mystery bead" on this page. The beads shown will be well known types such as those Peter Frances called Celebrity Beads. These are beads with a history, beads that have inspired those who own them and wear them. Identify the bead by name and/or a proper description,
then write it on a on a slip of paper with your name at the next meeting of the
Bead Society. Your entry will be placed in a hat for a drawing, and you could
win a prize. So check on this page on the website often. |
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Previous Contest - May 2010
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Previous Contest -March 2010  Answer: The Mystery Bead for April has two names: whitehearts and cornaline d'Aleppo beads. And there are two main ways of making them: by drawing hot glass and by winding hot glass around a mandrel. These are compound beads meaning they have more than one layer of glass. The center color is usually opaque white but it can be yellow, pink other colors. The outside coating is usually transparent red glass but can be any transparent color. The white interior makes the transparent outer color really pop with a bright intensity. Both styles of these beads were made in Venice in the 19th and 20th centuries and perhaps other places in Europe. There is a factory in France that is presently making at least six colors of these drawn beads. Our friend Jamey Allen discovered some rather distinctive looking ones on his recent trip to Indonesia where he was researching contemporary glass bead making places there. Contemporary ones come from both India and China. These beads were first made in the early 1800's and were exported to Africa and many other parts of the world for trade to people who had never seen such ornaments. They were greatly appreciated by them and we love them to this day. This information and further reading can be found in Peter
Frances BEADS OF THE WORLD, 1994, P 2 and P 61. Also Jean and Ruth Picard's Volume
4, WHITE HEARTS, FEATHER AND EYE BEADS FROM THE WEST AFRICAN TRADE shows an abundance
of styles of these very beautiful beads. |
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Previous Contest - Jan-Feb 2010  Answer: This is a glass mosaic or millefiore bead made in Venice in the late 1800's or early 1900's. There are probably thousands of patterns of these wonderful and complex beads, many of which are shown in Jean and Ruth Picard's book which is Volume 6, Millefiore Beads from the West African Trad . Kay Deeney knew the answer and got to keep the bead. |
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Previous Contest - December 2009  Answer: This west African made bead is cut from the shell of the arca clam. These large white heavy rectangular beads are also called "hippo teeth" They are not. The arca shell is a marine clam that lives in shallow warm water Exactly where these beads are made is not known by this writer. They are used from Senegal to Cameroon. (Liu 1976>6b. ) The enterprising Czechs came to west Africa to observe what beads were popular there in the 1800's. They took examples of these beads back to the bead makers in Bohemia where they were copied in white glass. This made life much easier for the native shell bead fabricators. See Robert Liu's book Collectible Beads for reference. Also The Compendium of Seashells by Abbott and Dance, p.291. Joan Eppen |
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Previous Contest - November 2009  Answer: |
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Previous Contest - October 2009  Answer: The mystery bead for October is a blown glass bead made in Europe, probably from Germany. They were most likely made in the late 19th century to the early 20th century and were traded into Africa. Colors of the stripes can vary. Length is 9.4 cm. Diameter is 18 mm. - Winner: Nikki Donahue! |
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Previous Contest - September 2009 
Answer: This large beautiful blue fancy bead was made in Venice, probably late in the 19th or early in the 20th century. The bead was made by winding molten glass around a metal mandrel and then decorating it while still hot with glass stringers of darker blue, white and aventurine glass. The design was pulled in two directions creating this "combed" look. Bead making was a cottage industry in the area around Venice and the island of Murano. Literally tons of beads were made there to be exported to lands far and wide. They were a hugely important medium for trade. Many of these bead tons went to Africa as this bead did, beguiling the people who saw them . Almost no records of which beads went where exist, no one was interested in that at the time. The whole point was what could be bought with the beads whether it was palm oil, ivory, gold or (sadly) slaves. |
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