Posted by: Evelyn  Post Reply
09/14/2006, 03:47:58
Ciao Giorgio Can you please post measurements of these (length of longest and shortest segments and their approximate width), please, if is is not too much trouble. Thanks.
Evelyn
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Posted by: napoleone Post Reply
09/14/2006, 05:10:25
Cara Evelyn,
measures are not so accurate due to irregularity of the ends of the beads. However, minimum length 25 mm, maximum length 61 mm; width varying from 14 to 19 mm; conisder that also in this case width varies in the same segment. I was told that the knots one can observe in some beads should be part of bridges between galleries, a sort of pillars.
Ciao, Giorgio
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Posted by: Evelyn Post Reply
09/14/2006, 05:29:23
Many thanks, Giorgio! I appreciate that measurements cannot be very accurate because of the irrecular shapes of these beads. I do have a better general idea of their sizes now, though. Best,
Evelyn
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Posted by: claudian Post Reply
09/14/2006, 03:57:19
I think some sort of burrowing African wasp lived in those "beads." I have seen them used somewhere before also. They look like they consist of mud, sand, and insect spittle. Steve
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Posted by: Evelyn Post Reply
09/14/2006, 04:20:33
Steve, are you thinking of the Caddisfly (genus Trichoptera)? Their larvae make tubular cases from small stones, twigs and sand. They live in water, though, at least at some stage, during their metamorphosis. Somebody had the clever idea to keep these animals in tanks filled with all sorts of small bits of gemstones and tiny pearls (I think). The larvae used these bits for making their cases and the constructions were then used as natural beads, worked into jewellery. Evelyn
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Posted by: claudian Post Reply
09/14/2006, 04:28:42
I am familiar with the tubular burrows of the caddisfly, and they have more gravel in them I think, right? Yes, some of them are studded with gems, like garnets and peridots, if I remember. Classy insect..Steve
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Posted by: Evelyn Post Reply
09/14/2006, 04:46:33
Yes, they have more gravel in them. I think they take whatever is available, in the environments they live, so these cases can contain all sorts of materials. I believe that some even use tiny sticks. There's a website that shows the gem-studded cases - cannot find just now. Even if it is something a little different, it appears to be the same idea - congratulations on his find to Giorgio's friend. Evelyn
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Posted by: red Post Reply
09/14/2006, 15:47:46
link to caddisfly beads
Related link: http://www.classicflyfisherman.com/caddisfly.htm
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Posted by: napoleone Post Reply
09/14/2006, 05:18:19
wasps build cocoons like nests which normalli have just an opening, though I've found many of them (and if I remember well I saw some photos in this forum time ago) with one or more lateral hole. These nests has very thin wall, and biult with very fine material like clay. This necklace has very strong and thick (4-5 mm) walls, and is built in coarse quartzy sand, apparently rich in metal oxides, judging from the colour. Ciao,
Giorgio
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Posted by: Carl Dreibelbis Post Reply
09/14/2006, 05:01:50
These were purchased in Tucson in 2006. The dealer did not even know what they were. Your information sounds plausible. Thanks!
Modified by Carl Dreibelbis at Thu, Sep 14, 2006, 05:05:41
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Posted by: red Post Reply
09/14/2006, 06:20:26
Hi,
I think that this material is fulgarite.
It forms naturally in desert areas.
It is made from sand which has been heat fused into glass by lightning strikes to the ground.
You can find huge chunks, then as the energy of the strike disperses you find these smaller tubes, then strands, then fillament.
I have attached a pic of some which I gathered near to Erg Chebbi.
I hope that this may be helpful.
**Evelyn, If you would like a sample for your records drop me a line!
S x
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Posted by: napoleone Post Reply
09/14/2006, 06:26:07
Hi,
fulgorites, as you say, are made of fused materials; it's true that some time they can inglobate coarse sand, but there is always, at least according to my experience, a fused portion. In this case, the matrix containing sand grains is a fine, not fused sediment.
Giorgio
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Posted by: claudian Post Reply
09/14/2006, 07:12:35
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Posted by: napoleone Post Reply
09/14/2006, 10:00:31
in my necklace the inetrior is the same as the outer surface, rounded or oval in cross section, with internal walls with finer part of the matrix apparently less eroded than the external surface; that is, the finer part of the clay still embraces more coarse snad grains, which are more evident on the outside.
Giorgio
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Posted by: claudian Post Reply
09/14/2006, 07:11:47
..those tubes? Also would they stand up to polishing? This is certainly turning into one of our famous "threads out of nowhere!" I have searched and searched for a picture of the wasp nests I have seen. They talk about wasps that construct tubes in the ground using a gluey material that solidifies externally, but I can't find any pictures of the nests...aarrgghh! Steve
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Posted by: Carl Dreibelbis Post Reply
09/14/2006, 07:47:41
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Posted by: Austin Cooper Post Reply
09/14/2006, 15:32:46
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Posted by: claudian Post Reply
09/15/2006, 11:15:27
Austin you must not have attacked them like I did when I was the "kid from the outdoors!" We had them everywhere, on all the barns and the sides of our house. We would tear their nests up and they would dutifully build them right back. They have this pitiful skinny behind and would only sting if you smashed one against your skin. They are very nervous creatures though...I can't believe this thread is still alive! Too funny. Only here....Steve
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Posted by: claudian Post Reply
09/14/2006, 10:23:00
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Posted by: red Post Reply
09/14/2006, 10:40:51
Fulgarites are formed by an unspecified heat source. As the electricity disperses to earth the heat diminishes. This makes for big variations between fulgarites formed at the point of impact to areas fused by dispersed heat/energy.
I have found pieces which are both solid and with interior channels. The surface of pieces which have been buried in the desert for some time and eroded look a lot like the beads on the strands pictured.
I have posted a couple of other pics of pieces i have found in the Sahara. The fresher pieces look different to the eroded ones.
I suspect that wear, or indeed 'preparation' of fulgarites for decorative use would lead to an appearance such as that in the beads shown.
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Posted by: red Post Reply
09/14/2006, 11:54:39
I have some pieces of Saharan fulgarite,.... i guess regional variations would make a difference to composition, but its all gypsum to some extent! If anyone is keen to try polishing or processing some drop me an e mail with a postal address, and I will send a piece out to them..In the interest of scietific exploration!!....unless I get lots of mail!! I think I have around 6 small pieces!!
S x
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Posted by: TASART Post Reply
09/14/2006, 12:24:44
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Posted by: claudian Post Reply
09/15/2006, 11:17:22
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Posted by: nishedha Post Reply
09/14/2006, 08:21:38
Somebody presented that thing to me, reportedly he found it on the beach. Under magnification it looks like some kind of whitish coral. It is very hard. I wonder whether the small perforationon at one end goes all the way trought...It is 71 mm. long (+ 2 2/3").
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Posted by: napoleone Post Reply
09/14/2006, 10:05:26
This is surely a wasp nest. I have a nice glass bowl full of nests like this, 2-3 cm long, I personally collected years ago from sand dunes in Lanzarote, Canary Islands. I cannot post a picture because I left my camera far from home. However, I've also seen this kind of nests, both fossils or recent, a little bit bigger, say about 10 cm.
Giorgio
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Posted by: Beadman Post Reply
09/14/2006, 11:59:42
Hello Napoleone, I was asked to identify a similar strand of "beads" from Nigeria a few months ago. Unfortunately, I missed an opportunity to show them to my friend Si Frazier (a geologist and mineralogist), whom I hoped would confirm my suspicions about these things. These "beads" are clearly organic in structure (made by a living being), but are composed of a concreted material (sand and earth bonded together to become very HARD). That they might be pieces of termite galleries does not surprise me—though I am delighted to read this from an outside interpretation, since I could not have guessed with any certainty which animal (whether termites, ants, wasps, or whatever) might have made them. I also tend to agree that the "beads" I saw appeared to be unused, and to have been strung-up to be presented as a "necklace"—though I would be inclined to doubt anyone ever actually wore them as such. I think they are something scavenged that is convenient to be strung and to become "beads." This can happen many places in the world, where fossils and other materials are recovered, that are already pierced (or a present-but-clogged perforation is easily opened). Crinoid stem segments come to mind--as does naturally-perforated amber. Though people DID collect and wear these things, in antiquity and even recently, this doesn't mean that EVERY specimen collected and offered has been so-used. It would be easy to pass-off these specimens as "beads"—but they may only become that once they are sold to us and worn by us (!). Jamey
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Posted by: hans Post Reply
09/14/2006, 14:59:17
I bought this pair in 2003, told they come from Mali. There was more threaded on raffia.
It was discribed as Iron Ore. In Holland the same stuff is called Oer and its found in old sandlayers. Sometimes as pipes round old plantroots forming natural holes?
measurements in next mail,
hans
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Posted by: hans Post Reply
09/14/2006, 15:02:19
excerpt from database, hans
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Posted by: Beadman Post Reply
09/14/2006, 15:02:28
Hello Hans, Can you determine the nature of the material? Are they hard and heavy, as they would be if they are metal? Frankly, they look ceramic. Jamey
Modified by Beadman at Thu, Sep 14, 2006, 15:03:40
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Posted by: hans Post Reply
09/14/2006, 15:31:27
They are 20 and 30 gr. each (the holes are large, 11,6 and 13,5mm ) and the other examples which I did not bought were also irregular and made by chance that I thought it was natural formed. But termite chimneys is now for me an option too. thanks hans
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Posted by: red Post Reply
09/14/2006, 15:45:16
How do they react to a magnet?
This may help to ID iron? I love a mystery!!!
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Posted by: hans Post Reply
09/14/2006, 15:58:07
It has no magnetic attraction, but I always thought Iron Oxydes have no attraction on a magnet. Is that true?
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