today i went first to Fred's favourite antique fair which is held once a month on tabletops in a hall in central london. its quite a posh and select event and has gained a reputation, but the prices are mostly HIGH, because almost every trendy vendor is well-informed as well as desperate to make sales.
Saw a lot of high priced amber, some being sold.

after that i battled the tourists as i went around Camden lock market which is a few blocks from my home.
of the hundreds of stalls, kiosks, booths and shops one next to another, all but a couple had the exact same type of souvenir stuff- mugs with pictures of london buses, t-shirts with predictable slogans, bizarre costumes, fridge magnets, smoking gear, harem pants, garments and bedspreads made in either north india or south america, etc etc and i know their main wholesale importer anyway so tedious and disappointing. -however the abundant choice of street food of every nationality is incredible.

here is my haul from this morning-

what i DID NOT buy because of high prices included 2 oriental strands-
1) a tassel necklace with a number of very large beads of red or black lacquer including abalone inlays in a pattern,
2) a broken string with a few real ivory carved Ojime type beads (one resembling a hare) and glass lampwork edo-style round beads, also metal, cinnabar, and a composition 2-face bead
of the kind we have discussed here.

what i show are WHAT I DID BUY:
a boar's tusk, a choker of red Czech tetrahedron beads in coral colour glass, a choker length of pinched pink+avventurina Venetians, 2 necklaces both needing upcycling which are variants of the type of beads made with turquoise-coloured chips embedded in bitumen which may be from Kashmir, etc.
and at the bottom, a rosary of lampwork beads of yellow glass that glow under UV light, and these each have small round dots of silver foil which is impressed with a texture, within the glass the bead is made of. They surely must be Czech too? the cross and the medallion are silver.