We have a vast collection of images here which have been shared over the years ...
Click on an image to see the discussions around the piece.
Enjoy!
You need to be a member of Ethnic Jewels to add comments!
Request your copy of our newsletter.
If you would like to receive our newsletter
Comments
resin beads are from the material the same as real amber - those real ones being also made of resin (fossil). Is my assumption correct?
from wikipedia
Resin in the most specific use of the term is a hydrocarbon secretion of many plants, particularly coniferous trees. Resins are valued for their chemical properties and associated uses, such as the production of varnishes, adhesives, and food glazing agents; as an important source of raw materials for organic synthesis; and as constituents of incense and perfume. Plant resins have a very long history that was documented in ancient Greece by Theophrastus, in ancient Rome by Pliny the Elder, and especially in the resins known as frankincense and myrrh, prized in ancient Egypt.[1] These were highly prized substances, and required as incense in some religious rites. Amber is a hard fossilized resin from ancient trees.
More broadly, the term "resin" also encompasses a great many synthetic substances of similar mechanical properties (thick liquids that harden into transparent solids), as well as shellacs of insects of the superfamily Coccoidea.
Other liquid compounds found in plants or exuded by plants, such as sap, latex, or mucilage, are sometimes confused with resin, but are not chemically the same. Saps, in particular, serve a nutritive function that resins do not. There is no consensus on why plants secrete resins. However, resins consist primarily of secondary metabolites or compounds that apparently play no role in the primary physiology of a plant. While some scientists view resins only as waste products, their protective benefits to the plant are widely documented. The toxic resinous compounds may confound a wide range of herbivores, insects, and pathogens; while the volatile phenolic compounds may attract benefactors such as parasitoids or predators of the herbivores that attack the plant.[2]
The word "resin" has been applied in the modern world to nearly any component of a liquid that will set into a hard lacquer or enamel-like finish. An example is nail polish, a modern product which contains "resins" that are organic compounds, but not classical plant resins. Certain "casting resins" and synthetic resins (such as epoxy resin) have also been given the name "resin" because they solidify in the same way as (some) plant resins, but synthetic resins are liquid monomers of thermosetting plastics, and do not derive from plants
@thanks Sarah for the explanation - very interesting. I read it through, but I will have to read it again with more piece and noone around...!
Before chewing gum, we country folk chewed on resin, or as we pronounced it, rosin, the still liquid and far from fossilized sap that tasted clean like pine but was chewy like beeswax.
Anna