Wholesale Jewelry-Making Supplies for Professional Craftspeople
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#22-807-REP Repaired Feather Beads
Approximately 28 beads per strand. 28"-32" strands, bead sizes range from 17x7mm to 25x11mm
$40.00/str
As older beads become scarce, some interesting methods show up in Africa to keep bead dealers busy. The sand bead makers in Ghana have been making replicas of many scarce beads. We've seen Chevrons, Mosaic beads, Spotted "Eye" beads, Ocossu and Bodum beads and many more.
The "Healed" Feather beads coming out of Kenya are probably the most unusual "new" old beads. Originally made in Venice, Italy, oval feather beads have combed trailing designs, usually in blue and white on a translucent red background. The feather stripe design is popular enough that contemporary Indian glass makers make a larger version.
Many of the older beads are badly broken. Strands of hand picked feather beads with not one broken bead have doubled in price in recent years. Less expensive strands of broken beads aren't very usable.
Some inventive bead collector in Kenya came up with the idea of healing the broken beads by completing the broken bead with a plastic or polymer clay. At first glance the healed feather beads look like a matte version of the original. On close inspection you can see that part of the bead is transparent red glass with the usual blue and white stripes. The rest of the bead is opaque brick red hard plastic with combed white stripes. Because they look worn, the blue stripe that is missing from the middle of the white stripe appears to be worn off.
We don't know if we'll be able to get these "healed" beads again, but they are interesting enough that we bought all we could find. The healed feather beads sell for the same price as the real ones did a few years ago.
To view an entire strand of the "healed" beads, adjacent to a strand of Real Feather Beads, click here
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#22-807 Feather Beads
24-26" strands of 6x17mm-9x20mm Ovals.
$40.00/strand
#22-807-70 Feather Beads
Very nice, high quality red feather beads. These have been getting harder to find over the last few decades. As these get more and more rare, the price continues to go up.
$70.00/strand
#22-807-New Feather Beads
Newly made feather beads, with a matte, lightly pitted appearance.
$50.00/strand
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