How to make a round bead?

I had a friend ask me tonight...

how did the round stones that I have happen? I was listing the stones that I have laying on my desk, that I haven't played with, and she asked if they were reconstructed. I thought the only way you reconstruct was if it was like turquoise or similar.

She was telling me that you can't cut round, that it's ground to powder, then "remake" it to get it round?

I always understood that the rounds were cut, also.

The stones that I have been purchasing are from HongKong, from

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Thanks for any information! Mary

Reply to
meijhana
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Oh good heavens, of course you can cut round! Does she actually believe that, say, malachite with all the rings and patterning, is reconstituted????

I never got to take the lapidary class I wanted with my silver teacher (he passed away this summer ) but he told me many of the mass produced beads are shaped on a lathe then tumbled for the final shaping and polish. Makes sense to me.

-- KarenK Desert Dreamer Designs

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Reply to
Karen_AZ

"remake" it to get it round?<

LOL - ask her for her source!

Carol in SLC New auctions:

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Reply to
Carol in SLC

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "Karen_AZ" :

]Oh good heavens, of course you can cut round! Does she actually believe ]that, say, malachite with all the rings and patterning, is reconstituted????

yes.

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

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's not what you take, when you leave this world behind you;it's what you leave behind you when you go. -- Randy Travis

Reply to
vj

Of course you can cut round. Well, actually, you "cut" by shaping it into something more-or-less round and then grind down the corners and uneven spots. There was a guy at the Gem & Mineral Show doing a demo of how to make spheres from rough. His method would be too labor-intensive for beads, but the idea someone else mentioned of shaping them on a lathe would certainly work.

Celine

Reply to
Lee S. Billings

Pete and I have gotten several stones from a prospector in Anchorage, including several quartz crystal balls which he makes himself. He uses a device that makes an increasing (then decreasing) circular cut around the stone, which is held stationary.

Tina

Reply to
Christina Peterson

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from snipped-for-privacy@mindspring.com (Lee S. Billings) :

]Of course you can cut round. Well, actually, you "cut" by shaping it into ]something more-or-less round and then grind down the corners and uneven spots.

right. anything cut comes out faceted unless you do something else to it.

]There was a guy at the Gem & Mineral Show doing a demo of how to make spheres ]from rough. His method would be too labor-intensive for beads, but the idea ]someone else mentioned of shaping them on a lathe would certainly work.

and it was beads we were talking about. Mary is trying to keep me safe, but i don't mind admitting i'm the one that started the discussion with her last night. i've "appeared" stupid more than once.

what *i* was talking about are the *beads* that are basically advertised as jasper, amethyst, fluorite, sodalite, garnet, etc. that are ROUND or in *shapes" rather than chips.

i have a VERY hard time believing those are cut, especially for the prices they are going for, and they don't naturally come in nice, smooth shapes like that. some places are actually saying "reconstituted" or "reconstructed" now. most don't. and trying to get a straight answer from a dealer at a bead show can be an exercise in semantics.

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

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's not what you take, when you leave this world behind you;it's what you leave behind you when you go. -- Randy Travis

Reply to
vj

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "Christina Peterson" :

]Pete and I have gotten several stones from a prospector in Anchorage, ]including several quartz crystal balls which he makes himself. He uses a ]device that makes an increasing (then decreasing) circular cut around the ]stone, which is held stationary.

do you mind me asking what you paid for them, Tina? because i've gotta believe it wasn't $5/16-inch strand!

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

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's not what you take, when you leave this world behind you;it's what you leave behind you when you go. -- Randy Travis

Reply to
vj

$27 for a 1 3/4" crystal ball from the Brooks Range. Not talking beads here. More expensive because of the crystaline structure which can fracture.

For beads I believe they cut them down to a workable shape and then roll them between two sheets of abrasive material, using machinery. Kind of like when you roll a clay ball between the two planes of your hands.

Because certainly rocks are ground down into rounds. And are not all composites. I have plenty of natural rock rounds -- crystal/quartz (and other quartz like amythest, citrine), turq, fluorite, coral, natural pyrite, etc.

Tina

Reply to
Christina Peterson

Vicki, ever bought or seen gemstone cabochons? You know...flat back, domed and polished front. Round gemstone beads, like malachite, amethyst, citrine, onyx....the list goes on and on....are made in basically the same way. It would be impossible to grind a gemstone to dust and somehow "reassemble" it to form the same rings and gain the same inclusions you see in cutting rough. You'd end up with a homogenous mix of colors, NOT a distinctive texture/pattern. There ARE some stones which are "helped", like turquoise, but even those aren't ground up and put back together.

Here's an explanation about "stabilizing" stones such as turquoise. Even those aren't ground up, but pressure treated/injected with resin to harden them.

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-- KarenK Desert Dreamer Designs

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Reply to
Karen_AZ

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "Karen_AZ" :

]Round gemstone beads, like malachite, amethyst, citrine, ]onyx....the list goes on and on....are made in basically the same way. It ]would be impossible to grind a gemstone to dust and somehow "reassemble" it ]to form the same rings and gain the same inclusions you see in cutting ]rough. You'd end up with a homogenous mix of colors, NOT a distinctive ]texture/pattern. There ARE some stones which are "helped", like turquoise, ]but even those aren't ground up and put back together.

interesting. i KNOW hematite IS ground up and reformed, not just "helped". that's what got me started on this whole thing. look here:

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look at the amethysts. they say "recreated", too. so does thecrystal. all the other are chips. do you see why i'm confuzzled?

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

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's not what you take, when you leave this world behind you;it's what you leave behind you when you go. -- Randy Travis

Reply to
vj

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "Karen_AZ" :

]Here's an explanation about "stabilizing" stones such as turquoise. Even ]those aren't ground up, but pressure treated/injected with resin to harden ]them. ] ]

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for that - it's fascinating.

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

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's not what you take, when you leave this world behind you;it's what you leave behind you when you go. -- Randy Travis

Reply to
vj

On Mon, 6 Oct 2003 14:01:50 -0400, vj wrote (in message ):

The shapes I've seen are mostly in molded minerals like Hematine (hematite). For the ones that are cut, I'd expect that a long tube of material would be cut into a shaped rough, then slices would be cut to make the beads.

The problem is that it's hard to imagine the incredibly low wages that third world beadworkers make. Even if a lot of the process is mechanized, there is still a lot of handwork, and I'd be willing to bet that the human wages are the cheapest part of the process.

Kathy N-V

Reply to
Kathy N-V

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from Kathy N-V :

]I'd be willing to bet that the human wages are ]the cheapest part of the process.

granted!

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

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's not what you take, when you leave this world behind you;it's what you leave behind you when you go. -- Randy Travis

Reply to
vj

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "Christina Peterson" :

]Because certainly rocks are ground down into rounds. And are not all ]composites. I have plenty of natural rock rounds -- crystal/quartz (and ]other quartz like amythest, citrine), turq, fluorite, coral, natural pyrite, ]etc.

these are the ones i'm talking about. how do you tell which are which?

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

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's not what you take, when you leave this world behind you;it's what you leave behind you when you go. -- Randy Travis

Reply to
vj

And even then, the best turquoise is natural and not stablized.

Tina

Reply to
Christina Peterson

Interesting, I've never seen quartz stone beads that were "re-created". Even in FMG there are few re-constructed stones, though there are some that are heat treated or dyed for color. In FGM and Rio, they all state what processes have been used on the stones.

One way to tell the difference would be to look for the color variation that's normal in these stones.

Tina

Reply to
Christina Peterson

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "Christina Peterson" :

]Even in FMG there are few re-constructed stones, though there are some that ]are heat treated or dyed for color. In FGM and Rio, they all state what ]processes have been used on the stones.

well, we have had discussions here before about FMG and Rio and opinions vary widely on their "reliability", if memory serves. and that was part of what started my conversation with Mary last night.

]One way to tell the difference would be to look for the color variation ]that's normal in these stones.

but the "reconstructed" ones DO look "REAL". that's part of my problem. even the ones in the catalogs.

h*ll, some of them look so real, you have to wonder if they're PLASTIC!

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

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's not what you take, when you leave this world behind you;it's what you leave behind you when you go. -- Randy Travis

Reply to
vj

I don't think the reliability of Rio was ever questioned, just the service when they changesbthe catalogue service.

Tina

Reply to
Christina Peterson

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "Christina Peterson" :

]I don't think the reliability of Rio was ever questioned, just the service ]when they changesbthe catalogue service.

okay. any more, i am SOOOOO leery . . .

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

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's not what you take, when you leave this world behind you;it's what you leave behind you when you go. -- Randy Travis

Reply to
vj

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