Hi Russ,
These are the new ones I brought home from Tucson this year, I like the mix, about 8mm, but a bit inconsistent one color to another. More expensive than the old ones are. I guessed China but have no info.

Russ, if you can get some acetone, place one of the beads in and soak for one or two days. When I tried this, the vinyl disks first swell up considerably, then fall apart. If they are a higher grade of cross-linked rubber (vulcanite) then the acetone will not affect them.
But I doubt very much that these are anything but very inexpensive plastic, probably Polyvinyl chloride, aka PVC, aka "vinyl", or a closely related plastic.

You will see these 'new heishi' beads everywhere you get in West-Africa. I made this picture on a marketplace in the north of Benin. It was December 2009. I wanted to buy a few strings of those new beads and these Fulani women showed me the way to the seller. Also at Agbogbloshie market in Accra you will see those new beads more and more, especially after the big fire of November 2010. A lot of traders lost there whole stock with the old vulcanite beads. It's a pity but I can imagine they are selling the new ones now. For me the new vinyl heishi beads are real plastic and I'm rather sure they are from China.

I see the woman selecting them strings them on wire with accent beads and is wearing some strands. Thank you for posting this!

they also echo exactly the colours of the plastic items for sale on the floor....so yes I think you are correct.
Red s x

Hi Russ,
Alhaji (Keira) is here right now and he says the vinyl is from Germany not China. Just thought that might help.

The Czech did make them for a long time. We still have some sample cards from Jablonex when we started working with them in the late 1980s. They have since been discontinued like the Prosser beads for economic reasons.
We did not import them ourselves because they was a lot of this stuff in Togo and it was very inexpensive to buy there.
I was told by a trader that these new ones are uncirculated and found in a warehouse in Nigeria. It is very possible but of course the Chinese would be very capable to do their own.
JP

Interesting that the new ones are exactly the same colors as JP shows on the 1980's cards. (Except for the white. No one has offered me any white ones, and thee are none in Joyce's picture.) There are 2 slightly different blue in the group I bought, one sky blue and the other a little darker midnight blue.

Alhaji will visit in a few days, I'll see what else he knows.

Anansi: Do you know if these are coming to the market already strung or if the sellers sit there and string them from bags?

I suppose it is possible this is all uncirculated stock from the 80's or 90's. If they are new made in China I'd expect the colors would vary from the sample cards. If German it could be stamped out of the same vinyl sheets used for the Czech goods. Since they are so uniform in size, hole and thickness I assume they are stamped from sheet.

I'll let you all know what I learn from the acetone test. Unlike the black which are fairly brittle, the red and other colors bend but do not snap when bent.

Joyce, I've got one strand with white early plastic beads. Because they are very dirty (due to the ravages of time I think) it is hard to see they are really white. When I have more time I will clean them (with care of course). Anybody a tip? Maybe with a little dish liquid and/or the ultrasonic cleaner?

They look more like ostrich egg shell beads!

I'm sorry to say it - and maybe the picture will tell you something else - but there is no doubt that it is no ostrich at all but really vulcanite plastic beads. That's the way you sometimes buy your beads because you never saw this color before ... I still wish I could clean them but I have my doubts!

The beads were already strung and no, the sellers were not sitting there to strung them. As you can see the picture shows a shop at the market place where you can buy all kind of household goods, together with the beads. For what I could understand (with hand- and feetwork; this is a village in the middle of nowhere and the women did not speak any foreign language) it was the only place where you could buy this beads. I remember the beads were very cheap and not the same price as the blue early plastic ones I bought in Ghana! Old blue ones are rather rare and not easy to find anymore. And if you can buy them you pay at least four times the price of those (new ones???)at the pictures! By the way: the Fulani women gave me the strand with the red and white in between beads as a small present.

As I was working with these today I realized that I don't see any orange ones on the sample cards except possibly on the mixed strands. Did I miss the orange on the card?

The colors I've had in hand include
Pink
Red
Orange
Yellow
Green (both jade green and dark forest green)
Blue

The sample cards show white and what appears to be purple or violet.

hello Russ
There is no orange on the sample card, only bright yellow, no purple either but dark brown and black.
White is unusual, we have a strand of mixed green and white in the older version but they look grey and darker green because of dirt and sweat.
I would not want to clean them up so.
JP

they are not from ghana they from Asia China to Nageria

Do you know if Abdul is buying them in China?

Alhaji Karia says these new bright colors of beads are from Germany. He is sure a warehouse full of these vinyl beads were located in Germany and the goods sold to a major African dealer. The red string appears to be what they were strung on in Germany (or Czech). They were supplied on the red string but not tied into strands. The picture Anansi posted shows the straight string hanging that supports this. Ones on nylon or other cord are restrung. He said that when the current stock on the market is gone there will be no more of the bright colors.

Alhaji also said there are Chinese copies but they are not nearly as nice as the German (or Czech) ones. The Chinese version is more irregular. He did not have any of the Chinese ones with him.

Uncle this are not from Germany,the man who is saying this story to A.Kaira is not true. i know that man and i know how he do his business.The man who is saying this is in Koforidue Ghana,i first started selling this in Ghana,i first show show then in Libanis beads store in Ivory coast,and this store owner import his beads from Asia,

Hello Degumay,

I know there are many untrue stores told in the bead trade. I report what Alhaji has been told and what he tells to me. Thank you for explaining what you know.

I understand what you mean when you say " i know that man and i know how he do his business."

I will try to find the sources in China to compare.

If these beads are Chinese I am surprised that the colors and the range of colors are so close to the 1980's sample cards the John Picard posts. I would expect more difference unless this material is some standard industrial product adapted to beads.

A while ago I tried to figure out how to have someone make a small quantity of felt disk "beads" for me, by contacting a local company that makes die-cut objects, particularly washers, out of a very large range of plastics, felts, paper, etc. That led me to speculate that the vinyl disk beads are made from some very inexpensive sheet stock that is produced for other purposes, then die cut by a place that mass-produces things like washers. I further speculate that the "washers" are sent to another business where they are strung for sale as beads. However, I don't have any facts to back up these ideas. But I wold not be surprised that Russ is correct and that the sheet stock is a mass-produced industrial commodity.