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Comments

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  Harald January 12, 2013 at 8:56pm

  Lovely. Were from? And what is the material?
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  SARAH CORBETT January 12, 2013 at 11:46pm

  I believe that this is a agate bead known as a Dzi.
  Fron Tibet?
  A rare beauty.
  S x
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  Anna Garner January 12, 2013 at 11:56pm

  I believe it is etched (painted, really) quartz (agate, carnelian).  It is obviously translucent and it may be showing the color of the background or it may have been infused with pigment.  It is a really nice one.  I have one with gold paint on it, too, but it is wearing thin.    It is more oval shaped rather than tubular.  
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  Patricia Deany January 13, 2013 at 12:27am

  Dzi beads are darker than this and they contain a circular element.-- they are not translucent. This does look painted or etched. It is still very beautiful.
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  Patricia Deany January 13, 2013 at 12:29am

  These are etched carnelian and look a great deal like this bead.
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  Anna Garner January 13, 2013 at 12:50am

  Thanks for posting the photos, Patti.  Carnelian became the favorite in the agate family for etching very early on apparently.  In the Middle East, the technique included etching out the lines and then applying the pigment.  This is very popular among the Iranians and Afghans even today, but the method of etching is now more mechanized and controlled.  And carnelian is definitely the stone of choice for the Persians.  
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  Jamey D. Allen May 28, 2013 at 8:18am

  The technique from antiquity (2500 BCE) is mistakenly historically called "etching." However, the preferred designation is now "chemical decoration." There is no mechanical removal of material followed by filling with a separate compound. This is an entirely different more-modern process. In addition to chemical decoration, from antiquity through recent times, agates and chalcedonies have been routinely artificially colored. This is often called "dying" the stone--though the processes do not rely on dyes. The German name encompassing these techniques is named "beizen" (pronounced "BITE-zen").
  
  For reliable information on this family of beads and bead treatments, I recommend you participate at my online Group where we discuss Tibetan Zi Beads. You will find my article from Arts Of Asia, on zi beads, is available there for free download, along with all photos. This is a very good resource:
  
  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/zibeads/
  
  Jamey Allen
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  ait ouakli May 28, 2013 at 9:25am

  nice infos thank you.

  i add a small part:

  beizen: corrode is the closest signification innthis case and it is pointed to the acide using technique.

  if it is the acide ( chemical technique ) it has to be deeper ,as engraving. you can stop the effect any time with washing with watter.

  this technique is used until now to do patterns or caligraphie on stones, goes faster and cheaper. the quality is not so good as engraving .

  any technique used, the effect is to have a matt pattern and a shiny one ( polished )
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  Jamey D. Allen May 28, 2013 at 2:22pm

  Dear TH and Ouakli--I urge you to read my article for a more-full understanding of the techniques and issues I raise. "Beizen" means " to immerse in an acid." However it has different implications in different contexts. A cucumber is beizen, when it has been prepared in a vinegar brine to become a pickle. Animal skins are beizen when they are converted to leather. In the context of beadmaking, beads and ornaments are beizen when they are soaked in mineral-rich solutions and subjected to burning. (This burning can be heat/fire, or it can be due to chemicals such as acids.) Different elements create different colors. But all this IS NOT dying--because no dyes are used (as I remarked earlier). Dying a stone is a TEMPORARY process, that yields inferior results, and usually with shallow penetration (in hard stones). Dyed stones lose their color through exposure to light--particularly ultraviolet. Beizen stones are permanently colored--because these processes mimic nature and are elementally-based. And, beizen color treatments are very different from chemical decoration, that typically results in white line patterns on the surface of the object treated (though it also penetrates into the substance of the stone in many instances).
  
  The penetration of colorants is dependent upon the "porosity" of the stone selected. Naturally, based on their experience, manufacturers select the most appropriate stones for this work. Penetration can be shallow or deep; even or patchy, dark or pastel. There are so many variables--including the selection and preparation of the stones, the time submitted to heat or acid, the temperature or strength of the fire/heating, and/or acid, plus differences in the actual solutions used.
  
  Chemical decoration also has variables--which is to be expected when the technique has been used more or less continuously (somewhere) by different industries for about four thousand five hundred years (since 2,500 BCE).
  
  Let's not confuse artificial coloring (beizen) with chemical decoration! I was careful to keep these separate issues. The solution used for decoration is NOT an acid--but rather is alkaline, sodium carbonate. The actions that occur in chemical decoration are imperfectly understood, but easily performed and replicated. Over the past twenty years, the Chinese have mastered these skills, and now create reproduction zi beads that appear to be very authentic. (The Chinese learned this essentially from my writings, that go back to 1982, and also from my notes provided to Dubin in The History of Beads in 1987--of course with considerable input from Ebbinghouse and Winston.)
  
  In any event, the above processes should not be confused with techniques that use acid to actually etch lines or patterns--this being unrelated in the context of zi beads and other decorated stone beads.
  
  Jamey
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  ait ouakli May 28, 2013 at 2:34pm

  Thank you jamey for the more details and infos. abbeizer, i know what is and the technique you wrote about too. but not so clear as after i have read your explanation.