I buy a fair amount of my beads on ebay. I have been quite fortunate with the quality of beads so far. I have purchased some amber and even after reading about fake ambers, I am unsure that they are the real thing. I tried the water test, the beads failed. But with the alcohol test, they passed. These beads do not have the "bugs" in them. They are mostly round and come in different colors. Any ideas? Also any suggestions for good reputable amber seller or websites? Thanks
I have been following a slew of amber pendants on eBay that all start at
99 cents.....it is a Toronto seller, btw. I live on the outskirts. There is one Vancouver person selling amber, but not sure if you are in BC or Alberta. I am suspicious of these Toronto 3 inch long pendants set in "German silver" which is why I am watching them. Some are green, some red and the rest are normal amber colour.
Anyway....I have collected amber for about 25 years and you dont often see a *whole bug* in a piece. But you will get bits of dirt or grass and so on. NEVER buy one that is clear. Besides being probably fake, it is also rather uninteresting.
If you are in the Vancouver area, there is a jewellery shop in the tourist area (Gastown) that has a wonderful selection of amber, but it will cost more than eBay, that is for sure. I bought some there when visiting my daughter.
Just some thoughts on it and I was just looking at Sooz's links yesterday and followed her path to re-read all about amber. I have a piece that has gone dull and I am going to try to shine it up.
Actually, I think the clear stuff isn't necessarily fake, but rather it's reconstituted. They melt the scraps of sap/amber and pour it into molds. So it's real amber, but it's waste product. It still will have the electrical conductivity of natural amber, etc.
As for German silver, that's mostly nickel, IIRC.
How did you shine up your amber? It's so soft I would think the only way to shine it would be to just rub it with a soft cloth. Or would you rouge it/\?
Hi Tina.....thanks for the info. I am including a link of Dr. Sooz's for amber wherein they suggest rubbing with olive oil to bring back the shine. Haven't tried it yet, but I know I put this particular pendant in a harsh solution, so it is dull.
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And thanks for the explanation of "german silver".....it sure didn't look like real silver. I got a giggle out of this person's write-ups. English is obviously not her first language. She refers to amber as a "natural plastic"!!! That would scare off any amber collector, grin. Cheers.....Heather (and I was just talking to my daughter in Vancouver....sounds like you, northern BC and Alberta are getting some really frigid weather!!)
A Yahoo feature story this morning is the restoration of "Russia's Amber Room". Wikipedia has some good images
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When I visited my son in Prague I went into a small amber chapel in one of the churches I visited. Not so ornate, but smaller (bedroom sized -- an altar and room for a small group) and more intimate. More natural and immediate. Like a gem encrusted, gently glowing cave. No so exquisite; much more comfortable and just somehow satisfying. There were large coarse chunks of other gem stones too. Tina
Oil would add a sheen, that is, the oil would glisten, but I would think that to make the amber itself shiny you would have to rub or buff it so that the temp would raise a little and the sap would melt enough to give a hard shiny surface. Kind of like when you wax skis. Do you have a Dremel?
I don't know a lot about amber. It's not in my preferred color range.
And yeah, the cold is continuing. Our weather here is a lot like YT and northern BC. I used to live in Whitehorse, and before that in Peace Country, which is in a different weather system because it's on the other side of the Rockies. I spend my childhood in California, but I feel like I grew up in Western Canada, because that's where I got my first job, first dealt with government programs (MOT, health insurance, did Payroll, etc), raised my children, etc.
Hmmm, don't think the oil worked all that well. There is still dull patches on it. Ron has a Dremel, but he says his buffers are not very good. We shall see. Got the pieces I bid on a couple of days ago, so may retire this one. Watching one more at the moment. Durned eBay is addictive!!
California to Alaska?? What a drastic change of weather!!
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