The day we visited Jeff—a bead seller in Kuta, SW Bali—he showed us quite a few reproduction beads from Jember, and kindly allowed me to shoot them. We returned to Jeff after going to Java, and I'll try to show all those beads at the end of this visual presentation.

In the meantime, sitting on a mat in his storage area, I was looking at a H U G E long strand of pelangi reproductions, that I thought were very decent—in terms of presenting a realistic and technically authentic appearance. In the first photo, we see an actual ancient pelangi bead on the left, that was the prototype of the reproductions, and the repros on the right.

Some years ago, the Jember beadmakers decided that B I G was the way to go—and they created a group of remarkably large "beads"—such as you might place around the neck of your pet elephant.... Here's a shot of a combed bead (that they call a "zebra," because of the dark and pale stripes), that is as big as a large cantelope.

More to come. JDA.

Mr. Ferry has a reputation for being the largest-volume bead seller in Bali, dealing with ancient and modern beads. He is a native of Sumatra, and at the time of our visit was home attending to his mother, who was ill. In his stead, Mrs. Ferry, his wife, helped us, and allowed us to explore the bead inventory.

We did not buy many beads at this time, because we were essentially on our way to Java, where we expected to buy directly from the makers. So I'll show a couple of images here, but I'll hold off on the later purchases until the end.

Here's a photo of me standing in front of Ferry's sign, adjacent to his home and offices.

The gold bead seen here is very similar to one made famous by the book Manik-Manik di Indonesia [Indonesian Beads], co-written by my acquaintance Sumara Adhyatman. It is a beautiful, but not exactly fine, rendering in gold foil over a wood (? - or something) base. Old and ancient metal beads in Indonesia are often not particularly well-made—but they have great character, are not common, and are usually pricey.

JDA.

Once we were all in Surabaya together, we set out for Central Java, heading toward Jombang, but first making a stop at a famous archaeological restoration—the Majapahit Baths. We see here a view of the restored baths, followed by a group photograph of the people involved; Fred, Marj, Yekti (our guide and translator) and Jim. (I took the photo, so I'm not in it.)

We also visited the the Majapaihit Museum, nearby, though no beads were on display.

JDA.

After a nice lunch, we made it to the village outside of Jombang, where the glass-beadmakers all reside and work.

The first industry we visited was headed by Mr. Nurwakit—whom we can see in this photo, followed by a view of his inventory in-storage. Mr. Nurwakit employs a number of craftsmen who make and process lampwork (or torchwork) beads, including wound and drawn varieties. They specialize in making millefiori beads that copy ancient and Venetian types. I'll show some of this.

JDA.

Mr. Suparno is an adept glass-beadmaker, whom we watched and photographed (including videotaping) for a while, in a room with two or three other workers. We see him here at his work station, using a long pre-formed plain cane to compose a wound-and-decorated glass bead. His stock of canes is on the left, and a pail of mandrels with dry white mandrel-release compound can be seen to the right.

We can see, in the 2nd photo, that he makes two beads at a time (on one mandrel), in this instance from black glass, decorated with red and white trailed lines, that are then combed into festoons. The resulting beads are flattened to become tabular. We can see some finished beads to the left of his torch.

JDA.

Here's Mr. Hadi—one of the workers who makes canes for drawn-beadmaking. In the 2nd photograph, we see him working on a small onion-shaped gather of white glass with red stripes. He has used a tool to perforate the gather and slightly inflated it, and is now getting it hot enough to be drawn—pulled to a great length.

He does this without any assistance, spreading his arms apart as widely as possible, removing the length created, draping it onto the floor next to him, grasping the butt-end of the previous pull, and repeating until all the glass is used up. He did this about six or eight times. The first and last pieces of cane are (usually) imperforate, though the four-to-six pieces from in-between are expected to have a decent channel running through their lengths.

I received a piece of this cane.

JDA.

Mr Nurwakit's store was a treasure trove of glass beads from his factory.

Here are groups of lampwork beads in translucent colors to resemble semi-precious stones (like rose quartz).

The 2nd shot is curious because it appears the prototypes are "writing method" powderglass beads from Ghana (though they are trailed).

JDA.

These are strands of wound and trailed beads that have been twisted in alternate directions to make their stripes undulate. These were first popular in Hellenistic and Roman Period Egypt, some 2,300 years ago. Several contemporary glass-beadmakers also make them now.

JDA.

Mr Nurwakit is a maker of chevron beads—and I feel fortunate to have selected this formal necklace of Bali silver beads with various sorts of chevron beads, including some with additional millefiori decoration, and of red tones.

The second strand here is one I didn't buy, but only photographed. It consists of would and trailed beads with combed decoration, and a few spotted beads.

JDA.

Here are a few more photographs of this necklace, showing individual beads. I thought these were interesting because there were not other such beads in Java/Bali (that I saw), and they seem to resemble both some Venetian beads (from the early 20th C.) and recent beads made by Art Seymour and Luigi Cattelan—in that they combine a rosetta or chevron base with the hot application of star-cane cross-sections (a la millefiori).

JDA.

And here are two more.

JDA.

These are strands of small heat-rounded drawn beads, in the style of Indo-Pacific beads—showing their color range.

I photographed someone's mother, sitting with a plate of beads and composing necklaces.

More later.

JDA.

I'm glad you got to visit Mr Ferry's place. He is a very interesting gentleman! I'm sorry he was away. Dee & I've spent a lot of time admiring all the things he has on all 3 floor of his place (after picking out the things we could afford to buy for resale.) He has some beautiful beads and antiquities upstairs.

A couple of years back I posted pictures of the giant beads in Jeff's shop in Kuta.

Do you have any other pictures to share of the bead making?
Did you learn anything more about the use (or reuse) of glass from old beads? s we've talked about, they claim the yellow used in a lot of the beads is from old glass.

Mr. Nurwakit is the maker of this strand of beads, copying conventional blue Venetian chevron beads. I also saw a similar necklace of green beads the same day.

JDA.

Oooooppppssss. I forgot I meant to post this small group of red chevron beads that I bought from Mr. Nurwakit. When he first showed them to me, my immediate reaction was that they must be from India—because of their slightly sloppy look and bead-finishing (and color). Looking at them more carefully, I discerned that the canes were not made by the hot-strip or crude bundling (like Indian beads), but rather appeared to have been tooled. One of these beads went into the necklace Rosanna bought.

JDA.

Mr. Nurwakit has also made reproductions of pelangi beads. These are not quite as compelling as the beads from Jember, but they are pretty remarkable.

JDA.

The bead industry in Indonesia remains shrouded in mystery for most of us. Russ brought up the interesting question...are they really using recycled old glass in their work? Wouldn't that bring compatibility issues into the picture? Anyway, I admire the tenacity of these artists and craftspeople. They are working on a smaller scale and in much more primitive conditions than China and India, of course. And much differently from Ghana......And, their work is aesthetically quite appealing. I really like their blue chevrons. Thank you, Jamey!

Hi there Jamey
Wow! How excellent for you, and everyone whom gets to learn from your experience! I appreciate the two previous comments, and would also like to know about any interesting methods of fake antiquing you learned about. Thanks, Jake.

This is a photo of Andy Setyawan, the owner of the second factory we visited the first day. Like other beadmakers, Andy makes a variety of beads-—including reproductions of Indo-Pacific beads. The second photograph shows him demonstrating how the small canes are "cut" into pieces (actually, this is controlled fracturing), using a guillotine-like device. Although we didn't witness it, he described how the beads are placed in an open pot and heated-and-stirred to become rounded. Basically, it's the "a ferraza" method ("in an iron pan"), practiced in India and at Venice until bead hot-tumblers were invented in the 20th century.

Here's a photo of Andy's open store. I will add additional photos of the beads I bought from him, and commentary, later.

This was the end of our first day, and I snapped a photo of the beautiful Javanese sunset before we returned to our hotel.

JDA.

Hmmmm. I asked my guide to confirm for me that the photo I showed here is indeed Andy Setyawan. She tells me this is another person--so I have to double-check that now.

In the meantime, here are some beads that I did buy from Andy Setyawan, that include Indo-Pacific copies, combed lampwork beads, a strand of yellow "French cross" beads (as some American collectors say), and other lampwork beads.

The second photo shows a structured necklace, featuring a beautiful combed bead in the center, flanked above by two large fusiform beads that were inspired by Kiffa beads from Mauritania (though made very differently). Andy is one of the beadmakers who creates copies of Kiffa beads—many of which are remarkably small—that have been marketed in the UK and US in recent years. Although they are lampworked, their similarity to Kiffa beads, at the eye-level of viewing, can be impressive.

JDA.

On the second day, we spent quite a lot of time with Mr. Untoro, another local beadmaker. He comes from a line of glassworkers, and told me his present factory had been making beads since 1979, under the direction of his father. (This is a surprisingly EARLY date.)

The second photo shows one of his employees preparing to make a wound bead that will be decorated with millefiori.

JDA.

Here we can see the construction of a large wound bead-base that is cylindrical.

In the second shot, the glassworker is applying pieces of millefiori cane, working from one end to the other. I was surprised that the individual cane elements are so long—resulting in a bead that initially looks like a porcupine. Once the bead is prepared, it is heated up to make the parts coalesce—whereupon the cane elements retract into the base, slump together and spread. Then the bead is rolled on a flat surface (like a small marvering board), to further press the canes together and return the bead to a cylinder.
JDA.

In this shot, we can see that the glassworker uses a painting/putty spatula to roll the bead over the flat surface.

At this point, if the worker is making bent beads—copying the "elbow" beads of Venice—he follows an unexpected process. He pulls the mandrel out of the bead (while it's laying flat on the board), reinserts it part way, and then puts another mandrel into the other aperture. Now, holding the bead from both ends, he places the middle close to the torch to make that part warmer and softer, and then bends the bead into a curved shape. I videotaped this, but didn't get still shots of the process. But I found it pretty interesting, in that many American beadmakers would not remove and replace a mandrel in this manner. Once the bead is bent, he corrects the flatness by laying the bead down and paddling it (on both sides).

JDA.

Mr. Untoro showed us a series of sample cards, and allowed us to photograph them. I will begin with the two earliest ones, that he says date from 1979. (Frankly, I think there may be some beads from this early included, but I think it's probable this card represents a longer or later period of time than just 1979.)

I'll show a couple of close-ups.

JDA.

I think these two beads are rather curious. I don't recall that I ever saw them in the marketplace, and I can imagine they might be early (for this industry), from prior to the time that new beads were exported abroad to the US—that were mostly copies of jatim beads. (Remember, jatim didn't hit the US until 1983—and it was a few more years before I ever saw any clumsy copies of them.)

Some of the beads on these cards copy Venetian beads, but some also copy new beads from India—that I know were made AFTER 1980.

JDA.

Unlike the two early cards that are on gray card stock, the more recent cards are all on stiff white paper. Here are some of them, showing numbered beads 1 to 59, and 60 to 107.

JDA.

I thought this was a rather unusual bead, that doesn't easily compare to either an ancient jatim, nor a modern Venetian bead.

JDA.

The morning we spent with Mr. Untoro resulted in my making two purchases of groups of beads—including chevron beads and others that I will show later.

Here's a plaque of mostly spheroidal beads, and most with millefiori decoration. After selecting strands of beads, I set about gathering up unusual loose specimens.

JDA.

I will show a few photos of beads I bought from Mr. Untoro. In particular, I was interested in the fact that his is one of at least three industries that make chevron beads. These products superficially resemble the Venetian prototypes in terms of color sequences (having red layers between white, and with a featured outer color, like blue, green, or black). However, the star canes are not molded as are Venetian, Chinese, and most American canes are made. They also do not actually resemble the clumsy hot-strip canes of India. I have to study this issue carefully (including making macro-photographs of beads and canes), but at the moment, I think what they do, essentially, is tool a concentrically layered gather, so that the layers become indented (in sequence), and look starry or flowery. This is the same task as molding, but is slower and less precise.

While walking through his factory, I picked up some discarded star canes for making chevron beads. We can see from the present photo that the intent was to make a Venetian-like cane. Remembering that the extremes of perforated canes are usually imperforate, these star cane pieces were most likely discarded because they have no central channel.

In the second photograph, we can see a strand of black chevron beads from Mr. Untoro, as well as a close-up of a few specimens.

JDA.

These two photographs present a selection of millefiori beads, designed to resemble ancient beads, followed by those like Venetian trade beads. Although the "new jatim" are not as authentic-looking as those that come from Jember, they are nevertheless very handsome beads.

JDA.

The three beads seen here were selected and photographed together because they demonstrate an important consideration in technical Indonesian beadmaking.

Twenty-six years ago, when I first examined Indonesian jatim, I deduced their sequence of manufacture—and promoted the unexpected idea that they were derived from decorated canes that had been constricted into beads (via the "hot-pinched" method). This suggestion was received with considerable skepticism, even though it accounts for the look of the ancient beads, when no other synthesis did that.

In order to make authentic-looking beads, Indonesian beadmakers have had to develop beadmaking strategies that include and incorporate constriction practices into their beads. And with these three speciemns, we can see that—in fact—they do make constricted beads. And rather attractive ones. As near as I have been able to determine, this approach in Java has only been practiced over the previous ten years, or so. Prior to that time, the beads were basically wound, and had trailed decorations—and were not very authentic-looking.

The final photo of this series shows Mr. Untoro's small drawn glass beads, made to copy ancient Indo-Pacific beads. (I will remark on Russ's question about the reuse of old beads, at the end of this photo essay—as well as other topics of interest.)

JDA.

JDA.

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.

In this shot, we can see, from his pile of finished beads still on their mandrels, the finished look of his work. To my surprise, the completed beads were not placed into ashes or vermiculite to cool slowly. Instead, they were laid on the ground in neat rows. I have to expect that the percentage of loss due to breakage must be quite high. I'll discuss this later.

This is not a brilliant photograph, but it was shot in-situ with a hand-held digital camera, in a factory that must have been at least 110 degrees hot. Unfortunately, I was not inspired to buy any of the beads I saw on display. At that moment, the store managers were busy inventorying and packing an order to be shipped for delivery.

JDA.

Do you have any specifics on their burners? Thanks for sharing these great photos.

Hi Brian,

Do you mean the torches they use? Surprisingly, they make their own equipment. I'll discuss this later, at the end.

Jamey

Yes - the torches - looks fascinating. I would love to work one of those setups....reminds me of the vertical heat Japanese torches or one of Dudley Giberson's volcano...

Mr. Achmad, another local bead-seller, had these interesting beads, apparently made from palm nuts, cut into pendants and beads, and then decorated by being dipped in paints—much like marblized papers were made 100 to 200 years ago for fancyt book-binding.

The bead are not expensive, costing about $3.00 per necklace. I have seen these here in the US being sold as "hand-painted wood" (which is what I was told when I first bought them in Portland, OR a few years ago). I cannot swear these are Indonesian beads—and if someone asserted that they are actually from India, I'd have to say I would not be surprised. However, they might be local....

JDA.

Tonight I have added a few new images to this series, to fill-out the beads I bought in Java and Bali.

I will close here with a look at some antique brass furniture pieces I bought in Solo, that I thought I could use as jewelry elements. The largest piece is a drawer-pull, that I have already made into a necklace with Jember reproduction beads.

Unless I think of something more to show, this series is finished, apart from various comments I will continue to make, as asked.

Jamey

Here's a shot of the necklace I made, to wear when I gave my talk on Indonesian beads, for The Bead Society in January.

JDA.

Here are two more close-ups, showing details.

JDA.

Two weeks ago, I made two necklaces to sell at our annual Bead Bazaar, to raise money for The Bead Museum. Rosanna has already shown the one she bought that afternoon. This is the other one. It's made from mainly yellow combed beads with red and black details, combined with new black onyx (colored agate) and (dyed) red coral beads from China. The glass beads are from Jombang.

JDA.