| Original Message: P.S. |
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Another curious bit of recent history: In 2008, when I went to Bali and Java (copiously shown here in two long dialogues), I brought with me copies of my papers from the Istanbul Conference of the previous year. One of these was about how imitations of old and ancient beads have become misrepresented in the current bead marketplace. I gave copies of these papers to several people in the bead business. Fast-forward to 2010: After attending the first Borneo Bead Conference at Miri in Sarawak, I returned to Bali and Java, to further pursue the fieldwork I had begun two years earlier. I was surprised to find that several beads and pendants, shown in my 2007 paper, were then being copied in Java (!). I was even more surprised when the chap I had given the reprints to, who showed me the new copies, did not acknowledge that these beads and pendants were derived from the paper I gave him. (He is directly connected to the beadmakers in Jember, and facilitated my going to Jember to meet these beadmakers a few days later.) Some of these elements were copied but altered-in-style. What had been an imitation of a Phoenician head pendant had been morphed into a Buddha head pendant. And, of course, I acquired specimens of this stuff too. Jamey All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
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