This is a cool bead! Islamic?

but, as you already know, I love all of my beads1 (smile) This one is translucient brown. The eyes are yellow with red, ziz zag design! There is the same design around each side of perforation.Strange!Islamic???

The pictures!

impossible that this bead is stone than, what other hard material could it be??? Any ideas? Has anyone on the forum ever seen this bead before?? A little help, please!

But, It is not the color that is intrigueing! It is the materiel that the bead is made from. What is the bead that you showed in the picture? Islamic????

From the photo the bead looks like it's made of glass! But holding it in your hands you say it could be stone, unfortunately I have only the picture to go by. If it is stone then I would assume the same process they used to make dZi beads could have been used here also???
I would take a strong magnifier and look for tiny air bubbles, at least this way you could rule out glass for sure? My hunch is that it's old and glass and the age makes it look like stone, maybe someone else could shed a brighter light on this!
Good luck, Thomas

I really appreciate any ideas! I've done everything besides breaking the bead to see if, it will break! ( Now, that would be stupid!) But, it doesn't appear to be glass. I called one of my trader friends to come over to look at it! Right way, he said it was stone without my having to say a word to him! we both, could be very wrong but it is not like any glass that I have seen. I do not have nor have seen another bead like it. It has eight eyes! I found it on a fabulous strand of ancient beads!

I tried everything to see if the bead was glass Except throwing it to see if, it would break like glass!!!(I would not break my bead!!!!)

Hi Christine! That's an interesting bead. Here is a small Islamic(14mm) on which the glass has deteriorated over part of the bead, and on that portion it looks very much like stone. The third pic is of one of my favorite stratified-eye beads(19mm) that I don't know the age of (I've only seen one other similar to it), but many of the eye layers look like stone to me. It was my first impression of the bead, besides loving it! Steve

Steve, I can not thank you enough!!!!!You are one of the reasons I stay on this forum!!!!! I think that the first bead is very much like mine! Yours appears to be stone but, is glass so, mine is most likely glass! I'm absolutely thrilled to get this info! What period do you think they come from?????/

..usual, probably Islamic. The way the eyes look is quite interesting to me. It could be one of Jamey's "layered" eye beads, or be a marvered stratified eye, or heck, cane slices. Sure would be nice to have Jamey and my beads in the same room. It would be so helpful to have him pick up beads and point out their construction methods, versus having to picture in my mind the picture he has in HIS mind, with only the text to go by. I'm glad you found the post helpful! It's funny how certain beads, even ones that might be considered "humble" so to speak, stick in your mind. As soon as I saw yours I remembered mine, even though I have hundreds of beads that one would call "more desirable." Strange things, these little addictive globs of glass! Take care-Steve

Hi Steve,
I wanted to show you my stratified eye bead, very simular to yours but not in so great condition. It is 17x21mm and has 4,5mm perforation. Could it be related to bead #98 in Maud Spaers' "Ancient Glass in the Israel Museum", 2001? That would date it to 5th-3rd century BCE.
Hendrik

Hello Hendrik,

A bead that has a "stratified eye," has a decoration in which the eye pattern is built up via TRAILING superimposed dots, one over the other, and going from larger to smaller. Like a stack of pancakes, except each pancake is smaller than the one before. Then, typically, the whole thing is melted so that the design sinks and fuses flush to the surface. (Though not always. Raised and horned eye beads can be formed by building each eye out, and leaving these units to protrude.)

In the case of you bead, I would guess that the whole bead is composed from preformed layered parts. The layered parts are "stratified" (probably best described as "ribbon" elements)—and their use composes something that appears to be "eye-like." However, these are NOT "stratified eyes." Your bead is essentially a mosaic-glass bead, composed from stratified elements.

One of the reasons we stress the occurrence of "stratified eyes" is to contrast them with "mosaic-glass eyes." These are two very different approaches to glassworking.

See the difference?

Jamey

Actually you have decribed the "layered" distinction to me before but there is so much amoeba-like variation on this bead. Well, no matter I should have known. But your use of the term "mosaic" makes me wonder if you have any ideas of when this bead might have been produced, as I connect to "mosaic" with Alexandria/Pre-Constantine Rome. Thanks-Steve

Ca. 300 BCE to CE 100.

thank you kind sir! That's exciting, and I think I will keep it! Steve

I love that bead!! And I suspect it might be the one I mentioned when I said I had seen one other example. Is it in the Forum Galleries? Steve

No, it's the first time I made a picture of it and the one you showed is the first other example for me.
Hendrik

What is the original color under the stone like deteriorated glass bead ???