Old Amber Beads
Things you should know about old amber beads and how they are made.
The old amber color develops through the natural process of oxidation of the Amber surface. With time, all amber develops an orange color on the surface. That is unless it is cleaned or constantly rubbed which processes remove the oxidized surface coating.
The process is accelerated when amber is left in sunlight such as displaying amber in the window of a store. It will start to color faster than it would were it out of the sunlight.The coloring of the surface is nonuniform. Naturally aged amber that shows the old amber color will show that color in varying shades and will not be uniform across the surface and in the holes where strings pass-through beads.
Amber aging and the development of the old amber color can be accelerated by exposing the amber to a high oxygen content and moderate heat in an autoclave.
When you see loose amber beads with the old amber color, it is highly likely that they been aged artificially in an autoclave.
There are virtually no naturally aged old amber beads available on the market. When beads are made, they are sold. They are not put on the shelf in a window under sunlight to develop the old amber color.
Because of the time involved in natural aging and the aging process itself, you can expect that there are no newly produced old amber colored jewelry that was made with naturally aged amber beads.
Below are some pictures of some of the most popular genuine Baltic Amber bead bracelets that show various shades of old amber color beads.
Round Old Amber Color Beads
They are available in bead sizes 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 36 mm.
Barrel Shaped Old Amber Color Beads
You can get old Amber color beads in various shapes.
These pictures show barrel shaped beads made in the old amber color used in a unique Islamic Prayer bead.
Olive shaped old amber color beads are also available.
Old amber color beads are available wholesale and on special order only. Go to How To Buy Amber Wholesale.
You can buy some of the pieces seen in the pictures above at PolandsBest Amber Store