| Original Message: India / Nepal / Tibet style? |
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Dawn,
Here's my best guess (and others please jump in!) - this looks like a fairly new necklace from India, Nepal, or Tibet. There is no such thing as "copal amber" - the term is loosely applied to various plastic beads that are made as amber substitutes. Without inspecting them in person, my best guess is that these are plastic beads of fairly recent manufacture. Since the stringing is loose, if the holes are fairly large you can try the "reamer" test to check the composition of the amber colored beads, without unstringing the necklace. Take a thin diamond grit reamer and ream inside the hole on one of the beads, being careful not to cut the string. After you ream enough to generate some sawdust, pull the reamer out and sniff the dust. My guess is that you'll get a strong plastic-y smell. Real amber will smell like pine sap. Bakelite (phenolic resin) will smell like formaldehyde (strong musty odor). If you need to figure out what most plastics will smell like, just do some reaming of various plastic bottles and containers you are tossing out or recycling. All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
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