A digital archive showcasing the extensive collection of jewellery and adornment images shared on the former Ethnic Jewels Ning site over the years. These images have significantly enriched discussions on cultural adornment and its global dispersion.

CIMG0224Another mystery from Afghanistan

Also this chain is supposed to be antique patterned beads from Afghanistan but the dealer couldn.t tell anything about them. Anyone having experience with these beads? It is a rather a bit like slate.
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  • looks like gagat stone or black serpentine. could be spindl whorls. supposed to be antique the seller tald you, i m not so sure

  • Like Ait Ouakli said, they could be spindle whorls. In Mali they have spindle whorls made of clay, which are sometimes put on a string like a necklace. I could imagine something similar - but this is only an idea, I do not know.

  • Hello Ait Ouakli and Eva, I do not know gagat stone, will have to google it. the serpentine beads I know have them they are more in turts. These are solid. Also some of the stones are completely hollowed out others none of hardly any wear, it could be spindles (have them from Senegal, but they are a lot larger) and like you said Eva made of clay. This is definitely a solid material (not baked). Also would spindle be so small as the smaller beads?  But I am going to find out about the gagat stone.

  • Gagat is called Jet in English, I found some Information online: it is  a geological material and is considered to be a minor gemstone. (not worth a lot), Jet is not considered a true mineral, but rather a mineraloid as it has an organic origin, being derived from decaying wood under extreme pressure. I do not think that this is Gagat (if it is, it must have been dyed blue).

    The English noun "jet" derives from the French word for the same material: jaiet.[1] Jet is either black or dark brown, but may contain pyrite inclusions,[2] which are of brassy colour and metallic lustre. The adjective "jet-black", meaning as dark a black as possible, derives from this material.

    Somehow I have a Feeling to know this material of the blue beads, but my brain is on strike..........

  • Eva, I think that my camera does discolor the beads, in real they are  more grey-green-blue and not shiny like Jet( I know jet it has to do with charcoal, England used to have a lot of it)Victorian times they were used a lot for morning jewellery but they did cost money and to make it more availanle the French started to make jet looking beads from glass. Jet also does not feel so cold as these ones, it really has a lot more slate feel to it, also the weight. I had some strands of jet beads from Afghanistan and have used it as you can see on my website in Vivid Vault in the black necklace with the Muria beads. Good night Eva. Thank you for the translation of the gagat stone. Gr. Ingrid

  • it is more gagat mat for me, it has the colors direction grey when not polished. if it is not hard, then it is black serpentine. maybe it is a mix of different prayer beads.

    when onyx is mat, looks also like this but not blue clor in it. the dumortierite stone, the bad quality one has the grey blue colors, looks a bit like this but not direction black

    here a foto of dumortierite mat

    2506004590?profile=original

  • i found my gagat strang and ade a foto with the mat dumortierite. the big beads are mat and small ones not

    2506006550?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024

  • What a fascinating stone , and abeautiful combination inthe different shapes and different stages of polish (not to forget the beautiful silver bead). But this stone turns more to the blue/grey color. I did come a bit closer though by googling and I found on the site of 'Etsy" and there are s ome necklaces, Linda's necklace, with Afghani malachite, they are polished flat stones but I did notice that the Malachite tend to have a blue's glow to them than the deep green as we know from the African copper mines. I tried to download the page, but I couldn.t get it onto this site.  Thank you people.

  • Ingrid, this cannot be Malachite on the Picture, sorry.  If it contains blue, it is mixed with Azurite, which is blue, but Azurite Looks also different. Malachite often occurs in combination with Azurite

    Sorry, I simply refuse to believe that this is Malachite. There is no evidence of blue Malachite in any of my Minerals books, it would be good if you could Show us the page you mentioned on Etsy. Etsy is big, I cannot find a particular page just like this.

  • Eva I know azurite. this is one color. Did you look at the Etsy site? Than you can see what I mean.

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