thanks for the info - very useful! I like the marshmallow analogy (being American and a former girl scout, it resonates!).

Attached is a photo of 10 different kinds of "watermelon beads" - but they are not the green kind as depicted in the Africa Direct and Yahoo links (I also have the green kind - and love them, both the teal and the grass green). Are these also watermelon beads? Note that nos 1 and 2 have a milky white core, while no 10 has a black core.

Apologies for the dark color of the photograph - hope you can see it well enough (also it's my first time reducing the size of a photo to post, so I hope it works).

Any other info you have on these beads would be greatly appreciated.

thanks!
Julianna