[Ansteorra-chirurgeon] Re: [sca-bead] Digest Number 650

lisnoire at comcast.net lisnoire at comcast.net
Wed Nov 3 10:35:10 PST 2004


>Please oh please oh please, do not ever try to melt and cast amber.  <snip>
The History of Beads  From 30,000 BC to Present, by Lois Sher Dubin, shows a group of 58 stone beads from 4000 to 2000 BC.  None of them are nuggets!  <snip>I think people carved and shaped beads because it was time consuming and difficult and therefor made them more valuable.  They even copied agate beads using glass because they were easier to make (a poor man's carved stone bead?).  Oopps, sorry, soapbox time! -- Mistress Dulcinea

++And a fine soapbox it is!!!!! Thank you.  

Incidentally, a while back, I bought a piece of clear lemon amber that is about 11/2" x 11/2" x 14" thick and had a dear friend carve a laurel in it for me and mount it in silver besel.  Lovely.  Hmmm.....probably time to restring it....again. :)

Isabeau du Lis Noire
--
Quemad lenos viejos, Burn old firewood, 
Bebed vino viejo, Drink old wine, 
Leed libros viejos, Read old books, 
Tened amigos viejos, Keep old friends. 

Don Alfonso X "El Sabio" Rey de Castilla, Toledo, León, Galicia, 
Sevilla, Córdoba, Murcia, Jaén y Algarve (1252- 1284) 

[Shamelessly pirated from Master Padraig of the East Kingdom] 


-------------- Original message -------------- 
Please oh please oh please, do not ever try to melt and cast amber. Amber is a natural resin that took millions of years to fossilize. It will burn before it melts and you will ruin it. It is very soft and can be carved and shaped easily. Do not use a dremel except very slowly because removing the outer skin too rapidly or with too much torque seems to cause it to crack later. This is not related to keeping it cool like opal, I used a flat lap machine to shape a lovely nugget. It was perfect and was kept cool by water falling onto the machine as I shaped it. About 1/2 to 1 hour later it developed a horrible crack right down the middle. 

As for other types of stone beads (nugget style), most people don't seem to care that they really were not used in that form very often. Iron age is still not a time they really wore rough beads. The History of Beads From 30,000 BC to Present, by Lois Sher Dubin, shows a group of 58 stone beads from 4000 to 2000 BC. None of them are nuggets! A necklace from 13,000 BC has holes drilled with a bow drills and abrasive. Thisnecklace consists of water worn pebbles, not shaped beads. A necklace from 2181-2130 BC consists of amulets of animals, birds and body parts carved from various stones including amethyst (about an 8 on a hardness scale). I have shaped amethyst with diamond abrasive on my modern electric machinery and it is hard to do, very time consuming! I think people carved and shaped beads because it was time consuming and difficult and therefor made them more valuable. They even copied agate beads using glass because they were easier to make (a poor man's carved stone bead?). Oopps, sorry, soapbox time!
Mistress Dulcinea

sca-bead at yahoogroups.com wrote:


There are 9 messages in this issue.

Topics in this digest:

      1. RE: judging standards
           From: Vicki Eldredge 
      2. Re: period interest
           From: Vicki Eldredge 
      3. RE: period interest
           From: "J May" 
      4. RE: period interest
           From: "Jeanne" 
      5. RE: period interest
           From: Nan Bradford-Reid 
      6. RE: period interest
           From: "Jeanne" 
      7. Re: period interest
           From: Cairenn Day 
      8. Re: period interest
           From: "catpurson at juno.com" 
      9. Re: New bead book...
           From: Kitty Descoteau 


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Message: 1         
   Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 12:43:02 -0800 (PST)
   From: Vicki Eldredge 
Subject: RE: judging standards

  
Very similar.  We HAVE to have 3 judges.  If we are
lucky enough to have 4
we throw out the lowest score, then average the
remaining 3.
Julei
    

Just a quick note on this one. If we have 4 judges, we
toss the score that is furthest away from the others.
It's often, but not always, the lowest score.

  
Oh,  one thing I forgot to mention,    there are
three judges  that critique
each entry in a competition  their scores are added
together then averaged
    

Do they do their critiques individually? Or as a
panel, so there is some discussion before the judges
score the entries? Are you provided with the input (so
you can use their comments for your next project)?

Thank you for your time in explaining this system.
~Vicki

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Message: 2         
   Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 12:58:21 -0800 (PST)
   From: Vicki Eldredge 
Subject: Re: period interest

  
(By the way, we sell beads (pearls, jet, amber, rock
crystal and etc.) 
and no matter how often we tell people that folks
didn't usually wear 
rough or nugget type of beads, but worked them into
shapes and carved 
them, the majority of people buying amber want
lumps.)
    

this brings up a dilemma. I have been given tons and
tons of the nugget type of beads. If they didn't use
them in period, what on earth am I going to do with
them? I have all sorts of stones, and they're so
pretty!!!

~Vicki


		
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Message: 3         
   Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 15:18:00 -0600
   From: "J May" 
Subject: RE: period interest

I believe that you can melt and cast amber. :)

Samia

-----Original Message-----

this brings up a dilemma. I have been given tons and
tons of the nugget type of beads. If they didn't use
them in period, what on earth am I going to do with
them? I have all sorts of stones, and they're so
pretty!!!

~Vicki



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Message: 4         
   Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 16:21:39 -0500
   From: "Jeanne" 
Subject: RE: period interest

personal necklaces and gifts?  

Perhaps gifts to crown/barons/etc?

Soffya

-----Original Message-----
From: Vicki Eldredge [mailto:maedbhawkins at yahoo.com]


this brings up a dilemma. I have been given tons and
tons of the nugget type of beads. If they didn't use
them in period, what on earth am I going to do with
them? I have all sorts of stones, and they're so
pretty!!!

~Vicki



[This message contained attachments]



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Message: 5         
   Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 13:36:45 -0800 (PST)
   From: Nan Bradford-Reid 
Subject: RE: period interest

Know anyone with a REALLY earlypersona?  (like iron age?)

;^)

Kate

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeanne 
Sent: Nov 1, 2004 1:21 PM
To: sca-bead at yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [SCA-bead] period interest

tons of the nugget type of beads. If they 
didn't usethem in period, what on earth am I going to do withthem? I 
have all sorts of stones, and they're 



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Message: 6         
   Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 16:46:27 -0500
   From: "Jeanne" 
Subject: RE: period interest

Regia-NA?  They're Viking............

Soffya

-----Original Message-----
From: Nan Bradford-Reid [mailto:murfnik at earthlink.net]
Sent: Monday, November 01, 2004 4:37 PM
To: sca-bead at yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [SCA-bead] period interest


Know anyone with a REALLY earlypersona?  (like iron age?)

;^)

Kate

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeanne 
Sent: Nov 1, 2004 1:21 PM
To: sca-bead at yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [SCA-bead] period interest

tons of the nugget type of beads. If
they
didn't usethem in period, what on earth am I going to do withthem? I
have all sorts of stones, and they're




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Message: 7         
   Date: Mon, 01 Nov 2004 16:51:49 -0600
   From: Cairenn Day 
Subject: Re: period interest

I feel the reason why they did not use the irregular beads,was that
drilling the holes were too hard. I have  picture of  Babaloynian
princess' headdress that does seem to have some chip type beads in it.
To me, one of the great tech jumps of history was when someone figured
out how to take sand or grit and a reed and how to drill a hole in a
hard stone bead. One of the interesting things about period beads, is
that the smaller were more valuable. It took more time, more skill and
wasted more of the base material to cut small beads. I've been told that
almost 80% of the amber is wasted in turning out an amber bead.

Now how did the cat set the computer to do this italic script. I don't
even know how to do it, or for that matter undo it.

Cairenn



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Message: 8         
   Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2004 01:20:30 GMT
   From: "catpurson at juno.com" 
Subject: Re: period interest


Amber is just petrified tree sap and is a very soft "stone".  You can work it with hand equipment so if you have any artistic talent you can carve the rough stuff.  If you don't, you can shape it into beads or cabuchons.  They don't have to be perfectly round - just smooth them into a generally geometric shapes.  If you use a Dremel be very, very careful or you will wipe it out before you realize it.  Have fun with them and you could end up with some very artistic, period beads and stones.

Lalah
Never give up, Never surrender


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Message: 9         
   Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 18:59:09 -0800 (PST)
   From: Kitty Descoteau 
Subject: Re: New bead book...

Oh, for the ability to purchase anything we wanted!



Katt



		
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