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.
You need to be a member of Adorned Histories to add comments!
Request your copy of our newsletter.
If you would like to receive our newsletter
Comments
I recently purchased several of these beads and determined they are made from polystyrene. They are not phenolic resin beads. The seller is referring to this post and insisting their beads are phenolic resin. I hot-needled the bead and the needle sunk in and gave the characteristic polystyrene smell. I also sent a similar bead to an analytical lab and it was identified as high impact polystyrene (HIPS). They could indeed date from the 1940's - 1950's, which is when HIPS became an industrial material.
It is interesting that phenolic resin (aka Bakelite) was introduced as an amber imitation in the 1910-1920 timeframe, and then other plastics were introduced that are now being sold as Bakelite imitations. I have been collecting a number of Bakelite imitations and they are all testing out as polystyrene, with one possibly a polyester.
Here are some photos for comparison. The 4 cross-drilled beads were found on a Mauritanian-style necklace. One of these beads was sent to a plastics test lab for testing by FTIR and it was identified as high impact polystyrene (HIPS). The second photo shows two beads recently obtained from a seller in Israel. The similar pitted surface (polystyrene is much softer than phenolic resin) and the mold line around the equator are indications that these are not phenolic resin. Additionally these beads were hot-needle tested and the strong aroma of styrene was detected easily. To help learn what this odor is like, you can hot-needle a DVD case or any other polystyrene item, for comparison.
