Well I can only tell you that it's heavy. Some kind of stones? Excited! It was a thriftstore find four years ago. Any ideas?
TIA
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These were super popular in the 1960s and 1970s, if it is what I think it is, which is wood beads, puka shell beads and the colorful resin/clay bead (the long bent yellow one and others like it).
They were very inexpensive back then, but have made a comeback where I am among the young folks. We have one consignment store that sells them in the $10-$15 range, but I see on eBay they can go (SELL) for upwards of $20.
If you were to sell and are not positive the light beads are puka, you can advertise it as colorful vintage boho necklace.
Fun find!! Brought back lots of memories of my beading day!!
Thank you so much! I'll probably continue to spoil my daughter and let her have it! She loves this style!
I think the large tan beads are amber. Amber feels like plastic but it is petrified resin. Plastic would be more uniform unless it was deliberately made to resemble amber. I don't really recommend you do this but if you take a hot needle and poke it somewhere unseen (careful!), you will smell the piney resin. Plastic has a very different odor.
The colorful crooked beads look like millefiori (many flowers) from Italy. They are pressed and rolled glass. Sometimes they are made from polymer clay but you should be able to tell the difference by touch or by tapping the bead on a hard surface. Again, plastic and glass sound very different.
en.wikipedia.org/
And the skinny beads are probably shell. I've seen necklaces like this from Africa and the Middle East but it could be a more modern reproduction. I don't think so because that millefiori is so messy. I bet this is from the 60s or 70s, especially because of the old metal chain and closure. That doesn't look new at all.
You might want to take it to an antique dealer that specializes in beads and jewelry. It's probably not worth a lot but those amber beads are very large and well formed.
Source: my mother collected beads for my entire life and I spent a lot of time in bead shops and looking at resource books. She always said "Beads were money before money was money." :)
Good luck and let us know what you find out.
Awesome!!! I will look into it further and update you all ! Thanks!
The brown beads look wooden and the front stone looks porcelain. The white beads may be shells.
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