Featured Amber? bead necklace...

One thing I keep my eye out for at the thrifts (thanks to having seen a few threads on here) is amber. With the exception of one pendant I showed a few months ago, I haven't spotted any, until today(I think).

About 32" long - the largest bead is just over an inch long. Weighs 75 grams total.

I've done the saltwater float test (they float) as well as looked with a UV light and there is a pale greenish blue hazy glow from my wimpy UV light. Sooo...I'm thinking real amber...you tell me what you think - here's the pics:

 

nice shots....I'm hoping someone can verify these from the pics......
my vote is they look real..

 

Sounds promising. The way the beads are all slightly different sizes & shapes also seems encouraging.

 

They don't really look like amber, and the swirls mean polystyrene. The colour and shape are also too consistent, but that can be seen in reconstituted amber as well.
A pretty necklace though.

Polystyrene swirls:

 

Will defer to others on the amber question.

Have to say, what ever this is, it is a bit unusual. Hand knotted, graduated. Off hand, it doesn't scream Bakelite to me, but if definitely not amber, it is the first thing I would test. The older plastic beads were not often hand knotted so if it is older, just curious what is going on here. Also the beads appear to have no seams. It is just unusual enough to merit some additional research.

 

Unusual yes I don't think they are bakelite for a couple of reasons - they passed the floating in salt water solution test. I think bakelite sinks in salt water. Also I'm familiar with the smell of bakelite when put under very hot water - and these don't have that smell when warmed. I don't have any simichrome polish to do the official bakelite test - but I'm leaning towards that they are not.

AJ, I'm trying to find other examples of polystyrene jewelry beads that look like these. I know that might not be readily available on the internet. When I search polystyrene beads I get mostly packing materials - or other things that don't really resemble these at all. I get what you're saying about the swirls and lack of color variation among the beads though. Would you consider the coloring in these beads in this auction to be "swirls" like mine? (just trying to learn to help myself better ID this stuff ) :

https://auction.catawiki.com/kavels...d-untreated-egg-yolk-amber-necklace-156-grams

 

Get a UV Light on them. Blue veil is amber. Those don't look right, imo.

 

Thanks Bear,

Not being familiar with the blue veil effect, I'm not sure if that's what I'm seeing under my UV light or not - but hey definitely have a greenish blue haze/slight glow to them - not like other plastic/bead items I have.

Not un-similar to the glow in this video:



Attempt at a pic:

 

Not amber. That's a pin point. If they were amber, you'd see a very diffuse veiing effect without that central bright spot, if that makes sense. That video is a tad misleading on what it actually looks like.

 

Thanks again! I'm going to assume (with very good info/advice) that these are not amber, but I'm going to circle back at them when I have a better UV light - honestly this one is very very weak - and flickers - it's dying - so I'm not sure i'm able to properly show the glow i'm seeing - but for now I'm marking these as not being amber. Thanks again so much for your help!

 

You're very welcome.

 

I'm sorry Aaron, I should have said dark swirls. Here is a site that mentions them, under #9:
http://ethnicjewelsmagazine.com/the-identification-of-amber-and-its-copies/

It is also good to take a look at the photos at the bottom of the page, there are some examples of copies that can confuse a lot of people. Amber is one of the trickiest materials to identify.

 

No apologies needed here. Only thanks to you for taking the time to help me understand this truly tricky subject!

 

well, so much for my vote......but the 'learning' here is great !!!

 

I'm not an amber expert, and don't mean to hijack the thread or induce arguments....but I have a saved link that mentions "Amber is fluorescent in uv light at wavelengths from 320nm to 380nm (some say its only from 320-365nm)" - and not all blacklights have the right wavelength to produce results even with genuine amber. Another site mentions that different types of amber may produce different amounts of fluorescence, some needing rather powerful lights to get results.
Long discussion thread on types of blacklights for amber testing at http://budgetlightforum.com/node/37212

....but I certainly am not disagreeing with any of the previous comments.

 

good point on the blacklight all_fakes lots of the flashlight style or the little hand held lights aren't strong enough.

 

OTOH these don't "smell" like amber to me either.