August Bead Society Meeting: Faking It – Plastic Imitations of Organic Materials

Faking It – Plastic Imitations of Organic Materials
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The August 4th Bead Society meeting will feature Rosanna Falabella, as our speaker. She will talk about fakes and plastic imitations of materials in Jewelry.  Many examples of the fakes along side the "real thing" will be shown for ivory, pearl, amber, tortoiseshell, coral, and jet. Check out the following pictures! 

Rosanna Falabella has created a Plastic bead identification guide available here. 

August 4th 7 pm Pacific Time

​Rare and precious natural materials used for jewelry and other personal adornment have
been imitated since antiquity. The first major invention in this area was glass, which
was used to substitute for naturally occurring minerals and gems. The development of
semi-synthetic and fully synthetic materials, starting in the late 1800s, brought the art of
faking it to a whole new level, as impressive imitations of many natural materials were
made possible.

This presentation will give a brief history of the most important man-made plastics used
to imitate natural materials. Many examples of the fakes along side the "real thing" will
be shown. Some of the techniques used to identify the different plastics used for imitations
will be presented.

All are welcome. 
​Zoom Meeting ID: 899 883 2615, Passcode: Beads
Bead Society business meeting at 6:30 pm, same Zoom info! ​
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