Posted 7 years ago
honeybaby2…
(1 item)
Just received these beads as a gift from my mother in law. They are not new by any means. I am wondering if they are coral or Baltic amber? I tried the hot pin test - and there was no smell. I tried the static test - I rubbed one of the beads vigorously on a soft fabric and there was no static but also no smell and no sign of stickiness or tackiness. The other test I read about is taking a knife and testing if it chips or slices. If it chips, I think it is amber and if it slices then it's copal. So for this test, instead of using a knife I examined the head holes which had some chips at the edges, like a glass might look if it was chipped, there was a shinier surface where the chip happened - but this is a one millimeter chip I'm talking about - and I'm no expert so who knows.
So curious if these are amber! My hunch says they are amber but again I really have no idea. Any thoughts about these tests?
Many of the beads are half opaque butterscotch/egg yolk and the other half is more translucent. They really are beautiful no matter what they actually are! I'm going to restring them and wear them myself while I figure out if they are copal or amber.
I will try the salt water test and report back here! Thank you so much for your reply Valentino! I did put them in graduated order and strung them up on a cord but nothing fancy. I will post another picture:)
Just posted a photo of the beads strung. Going to see my Mother in law this weekend and will ask her where she got them! Stay tuned! :)
Don't know why the color is so different. Same camera, same beads. Perhaps the wood table and gloomy day drabbed the color out, while the beads in a pile in the white box created color saturation? Whatever the reason, I think they are closer to the color in the strung necklace image but I will doublechexk. Going to sleep now! Thanks everyone for looking and liking and reading!
So she says she got them as a gift from a friend in Warsaw, Poland. She said whenever they saw each other (irregularly) he would bring her a necklace, so she has several of them!