Mr. Pramono operates a factory that produces small elegant lampwork beads, with decorations that resemble both Venetian and Japanese types. Here we see one of his cool-cat workers, making a series of beads. The approach taken demands that a series of bases be wound onto a mandrel, very close to each other. This is no easy feat, and is generally not practiced by American and European beadmakers. However it is done in India (and I have always assumed that a LOT of this Indonesian work and methods came to them—not so long ago—from India).

Once the line of bases is made, the worker sets about decorating them. Using very thin canes of different colors, he adds the decoration a color (or cane) at a time to each bead in-sequence from one end of the mandrel to the other. Then he selects a new color, and again sequentially adds whatever decoration is demanded. This makes it easier to create a series of beads that are similar to one another; rather than having to repeat himself, making each bead completely before making the next one.

In the instance of these beads, the bases are translucent dark blue, with avventurina spiral lines, and spots from multicolored canes.

JDA.