Vintage Beads Finds New Home!

At the Trace Creek Crop this past weekend, my dear friend brought a bag full of costume jewelry she found while cleaning out a house in NYC. While at the crop, I carefully cut apart the very old strings that held the beads together and putting all the beads into a sack to be washed & separated when I got home. When separating the beads from their original state, I could see the beauty beneath the layer of dirt. These were found in a basement I believe.

BEFORE BATH

AFTER BATH

Here you can see the true beauty of each bead. All the beads ended up being glass which is amazing in itself. Usually you find a lot of acrylic beads in the mix, but not here. The red & blue beads are splashed with colors and the blue leaves are a delicate etched glass with rhinestones down the centers. If you look closely you'll see two sizes of lentil beads both in green & yellow. There is a carved bone looking bead in the mix above. I didn't take apart necklace that included these beads......not sure where the one above came from as the necklace isn't broken. However, I will take that necklace apart & clean those beads. They were laced on a leather cording. Now the beads will be sorted & put into my stash for stringing!

Thanks to my dear friend Glenda Logsdon, I have some new beads to play with.......and she will end up with the first set of earrings I make out of them!

Anytime you're clearing out old jewelry, please think of me.....I'd love to have first dibs at them!

Beads just make me do a HAPPY DANCE!