i have a few of these ceramic beads in a few colours with 'decal' or 'transfer' decorations from the 1980s but can't remember for sure if they are Japanese, or Greek!
the red beads may be Indian.
The purple and pink ones are almost certainly ceramic decals made in Greece. I have some similar to these (and to Stef's) from as early as the late 1970's which I bought in Newcastle in 1978. But similar shaped ceramic beads with different patterns were available through the 1980's/1990's. I bought many kilos of the round variety from a Greek manufacturer, and even sold some of them to Liberty's of London who used them to make fancy bookmarks!
Do some research on Tensha beads from Japan and see what you think. Tensha means 'transfer'. Many of them are acrylic, but there might be other materials involved too.
The red beads look like powder glass, but I haven't seen them before.
The beads that are shown and i'm talking about are ceramic. I also have a few of the plastic ones which are not the same. So its more likely these are greek, then.
The red ones appear to resemble indian beads. Its usually helpful to indicate sizes, as i guess they are not very big?
i think these were samples originally- the labels with them are worded, with red typewriter lettering:
BIG CYLINDRIC.
with desing,
SMALL CYLINDRIC
with desing
SMALL ROUND
with desing
BARREL SHAPE
the odd spelling might suggest Greek?
the 2 possibly '70s -chokers are on a thick greek type of thonging-
being quite clunky they really are not my taste at all, but in the spirit of collecting they must be important!
lets see if the image is the right size today...
Yes those do look just like the ones I have. Sorry I'm not home or I could give measurements. So they're possibly Greek, huh? Well that gives me something to go on. Thanks for your help, I am completely new to the world of beads. I'm not sure where these came from, all the other beads that I inherited are African Trade.
Thank you, they look to me to be ceramic. All the other beads that I have (I inherited a huge collection) are African Trade beads, but I haven't seen anything that looks like those red ones.
