Just came back after a week of sunshine on the island of Lesvos, Greece.
Not a bead trip as such, but some interesting bead related things, nevertheless.

The Greeks like to use 'worry beads', which they call Komboloi. Playing with them is mostly a men's affair. Them say there is no religious meaning to them, but they are very similar in style to Middle Eastern Islamic Prayer beads.

Several shops had them, and most of them were made in an 'amber style'. When I asked more information about them, I ran into the term 'Faturan'. Rosanna recently posted about Faturan, as being the brand name of a phenolic resin, similar to bakelite. I had not heard it before, and it was interesting to see it again.

Generally, the sellers would point to three different types of beads. The cheap plastic beads, which you can buy for a few euro. The more expensive 'faturan' beads, and the very expensive genuine amber beads, both old and new. There are also stone, coral, wood and metal komboloi beads.

The story about the Faturan was that it was made by mixing and pressing together amber dust with some material into material for beads. It came in different colors, all opaque. One seller mentioned that this was a popular material because it was harder than the actual amber. The komboloi get played with a lot, and I can imagine it would cause wear on the amber.
The different colors were said to me to come from heating in an oven. The longer it stayed in, the more it changed from yellow, to orange, to dark brown.

Interesting was to see that some had point decorations. According to the seller, they were done with a hot needle.
To me, it is difficult to tell the different materials apart. I do thing that the faturan showed here was a completely articifical product without any real amber dust or shavings. However, if it is the old phenolic resin or a newer product, I do not know.