| Original Message: Neither are natural amber |
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Welcome to the forum and the wonderful, wide world of bead collecting! My opinion on these - Neither one is natural amber. If they were, they would have cost you many thousands of dollars per strand, and I suspect you did not pay that kind of money for them. The bottom strand looks like new plastic resin of some sort. I've read that polyester resins are used to make a lot of beads nowadays. The top strand looks like some sort of wood or horn. Can you say any more about them - are they heavy-feeling, chipped around the holes, etc. Maybe a good close-up would help. But, they also could be a plastic resin material made to look like wood, horn, bone, etc. Many plastics will carry a static charge, so that is not a good test of synthetic vs. natural amber. I'm not aware of whether any wood, horn, bone, etc will carry a charge. It does make me suspect that the first strand is plastic as well, though. As to what they are worth - no clue - sorry. I use EBay a lot to research prices. You can search there on African amber and check the SOLD auctions, not what people ask for the item. That can give you an idea about similar items, if you can find them. it can be time-consuming but you will learn a lot about what's out on the market and for what prices. Note: It's unfortunate, because plastic resin beads are neither amber nor copal, but you will find them listed under "African amber" and "copal amber" in the on-line market places. All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
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