I knew Grace Chu, who was a member of our Bead Society, and a very nice lady. I admired her (their) book on jade more than the glass stuff. She was very modest about their books. I have never believed that conventional glass beads were wound onto bamboo rods. This just seems very unlikely. I would like to see someone replicate this process.

I do know that, in some instances, Canton beads were offered for sale in small boxes, and inside the box were short lines of beads. These had been strung onto bamboo sticks. As far as I know, this is the association between glass beads and bamboo.

JDA.