Photos

Comments

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  Stefany Tomalin September 13, 2010 at 7:47am

  Which beads are cinnabar? The black ones you show are lacquered carved wood. Cinnabar is the name of a pigment in red lacquer.
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  Kathleen McCabe-Elsey September 14, 2010 at 2:05am

  Hi Stefany, i am answering for Kim although she did not request this, just sharing my background..Cinnabar is the common ore of mercury. 'cinnabar' is a common referral to some of the red (lacquered, dyed) carved Asian motif carved wood beads. I have seen, and sold 'cinnabar' beads that are red, black turquoise and green. We would not want to have Cinnabar in our jewelry due to its toxicity.
  I am sure Kim had no intention of calling something it was not.(Hence the lower case and ' ' marks).
  She does do beautiful compositions and i do admire her artistry.
  
  "Cinnabar stone is a soft brick red in color composed of mercury sulfide. Developed in China as a lacquer which was applied to wood and then carved or painted, it was actually highly toxic and quite dangerous to handle! Today, jewelry called cinnabar is actually a heavy molded polymer made to resemble cinnabar beads, or the red lacquered wood from the cinnabar tree which also grows in Southeast Asia."
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  Stefany Tomalin September 14, 2010 at 9:37am

  If you want to be exact in your terminology you can call the other colours lacquered carved wood, but in the professional world of beads only the red ones are correctly termed "Cinnabar" which nowadays describes the appearance of the colour, and harks back to when it actually was made with that traditional pigment.
  
  As a specialist bead researcher i'm not attacking anyone but feel I can be useful here correcting the descriptions to the greatest possible accuracy. Too many dealers dont know, make things up or repeat what they've heard without checking the information. If you do want to sell, or want to catalogue your own collection, you will have a lot more respect if you can verify your information. It is really important now especially when the chinese bead making industries are copying everything even the antique beads from other parts of the world so skillfully!