Hi Dawnese,
Please log in to check for your private messages. I would be happy to help you by reducing the pictures so they can be posted.

It will be very hard to figure anything out with seeing the necklace.

Cheers,
Rosanna

trying again to get photo small enough to post

Dawn,
Here's my best guess (and others please jump in!) - this looks like a fairly new necklace from India, Nepal, or Tibet. There is no such thing as "copal amber" - the term is loosely applied to various plastic beads that are made as amber substitutes. Without inspecting them in person, my best guess is that these are plastic beads of fairly recent manufacture.

Since the stringing is loose, if the holes are fairly large you can try the "reamer" test to check the composition of the amber colored beads, without unstringing the necklace. Take a thin diamond grit reamer and ream inside the hole on one of the beads, being careful not to cut the string. After you ream enough to generate some sawdust, pull the reamer out and sniff the dust. My guess is that you'll get a strong plastic-y smell. Real amber will smell like pine sap. Bakelite (phenolic resin) will smell like formaldehyde (strong musty odor). If you need to figure out what most plastics will smell like, just do some reaming of various plastic bottles and containers you are tossing out or recycling.

Copal is tree resin that hasn't yet completely become fossilised- its a traditional ingredient of varnish because its still soluble in spirits such as turpentine. it could be ancient but not nearly as old as Amber itself.
however lumps of it are carved into beads - and the main visible difference between the Copal resin and Amber beads in my collection is that the copal ones have a slightly flaky surface- which can be improved with a little oil.
when i get home to my main computer i might find an image to show.

the name copal is often mistakenly applied to anything that doesn't pass the other Amber tests, but much of that could also be acrylic, plastic or synthetic resin or various other materials.

i don't think of such items as fakes but rather as "Tributes".

Thanks. I'll try the ream test.I'm pretty sure they are not real amber,but it will be interesting to try the test. If they are a bakelite or other sort of plastic,I'll be surprised, because of the wear/patina patterns

Thanks. I'll try the ream test.I'm pretty sure they are not real amber,but it will be interesting to try the test. If they are a bakelite or other sort of plastic,I'll be surprised, because of the wear/patina patterns

Oops.I posted my reply to you on another reply. But in short, thanks.

Oops.I posted my reply to you on another reply. But in short, thanks.

eBay 301876783386

Here are some Bakelite (phenolic) beads that seem to have similar felt spacers. The close-up in the last picture shows some marbling that is very typical of phenolic resin beads from the 1920- 1950 era. Note how neat and perfect the holes are. Phenolic resin must be drilled. Also note how regular the shapes are.

Is it possible to take a close-up of the perforation side of a bead on your strand that's in good focus?

Thanks for the link. I'm away from home right now, so I can't get a better photo until I get home. The beads I have are NOT very regular in shape, but I did not look all that closely at the perforation, so I'm eager to get home and examine them with this information.