Red bead with eyes
Re: Ok, I know it's not Kiffa (or is it?) -- Mel H Post Reply Edit Forum Where am I?
Posted by: TASART Mail author
02/21/2014, 06:53:20

The red bead with eyes is an Islamic period eye bead, on most "trader" strands of Kiffa beads there were mixes, typically 80-100 powder glass Kiffa beads, 5-10 Islamic types and 10 or so Venetian with an occasional Czech bead thrown in as well. When I first started collecting, there were ususally 100-110 beads total per strand, in recent years the strands have been cut, added to, restrung and cut again....there currently is no rhyme or reason for how they are strung......in the past 10 years there has been a proliferation of damaged and repaired beads on the market strands, most poly-tri bead types are very poor examples of the type. It seems the better beads have been absorbed into private collections and what are on today's market are second and third rate examples. Many times there are some wonderful examples of Islamic beads to be found!



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