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What a fantastic find. They look like good silver and seem quite old. If you look at the damaged bead, can you tell what the core is made of?
Hi Betty. They are very worn around the holes and seem old. The inner core is hard and brown, I think it is clay.
Resin Betty, They have been filled with resin. This has been so many time brought forward. I have experience. When we once had overheat the bead, the resin came slowly as a solid liquid out of the bead but solidified as soon as we cooled it with cold water. Another experience was that I tried to enlarge the inside hole, the material came out as crumbs, as sand colored and when pressed into powder it looks exactly as the resin we used to crush on out ballet spitz(shoes). These beads most of the time are only a very thin layer of silver. (two halves soldered together) afterwards, liquid resin is poured in to prevent it from being damaged. With the old beads because being just a thin layer, and good silver it has worn through. It can be also made of in a thicker layer and has no filling, but it does have buts. Gr. Ingrid
Thanks a lot, Cecilia and Ingrid. I only asked because the close up photo showed a substance similar to what seems to be in some single beads I have. Just as you described it Ingrid, I also had the experience of it coming out of a hole as tiny, sand-coloured crumbs. I think I even tried to heat the crumbs (very small quantity) but they just turned darker. My necklaces are all of the hollow variety as far as I can tell...