| Original Message: Hmmm.... |
|---|
|
As I remarked previously, Javanese bedmakers reached critical-mass for reproducting ancient beads in a more-authentic manner in the early 2000s. I saw the first hot-pinched millefiori beads, imitating jatim, in 2001. It also happened that in the late '90s I saw the first "Javanese" millefiori piece, at the Folk Art and Craft Museum in Los Angeles—shown to me by the store manager, who was a friend (now deceased). This was not a bead. It was a paperweight, and had been made using typical-looking blue-&-white eye canes. However, I was told it was fabricated by an Anglo man in Java. So it was not produced at a Javanese-manned factory. Nevertheless, just the fact that actual millefiori work was being produced in Java caused me to anticipate that locally-made more-authentic beads would be offered eventually. And this turned out to be true just a few years later. These included wound individually-made beads with sparse millefiori decoration. (I have some.) Followed by actual hot-pinched beads—that realistically mimic ancient jatim. My article for the Istanbul Bead Conference (2007) shows specimens of these beads, and describes the progress of the Javanese industries. And, of course, the two long photo essays from my trip in 2008, posted here at the Forum, are revealing. By 2006, your beads would have been commplace, in terms of the changes in manufacturing. But in the '90s, beadmakers were still making torchwork wound beads with trailed decorations. Yes, they were "nice beads." But they were very different from mosaic-glass beads. Jamey All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
|
|