Knowing my interest in phenolic resin beads and beads that imitate amber, a couple of bead pals recently gave me some beads and pieces of beads to add to my investigations.

The first picture is of some beads and pieces from John Picard. I conducted my usual tests of reaming some sawdust from the holes and also hot-needling to confirm. In this group you can see a repaired phenolic resin bead (about 25 mm diameter), two broken natural amber beads, and a thermoplastic bead that is likely polystyrene.