What are white hearts?
This definition is taken from the Collectible Bead book.
White heart beads are cased glass. They are also called overlay or layered beads. One color, often bold opaque and white or a pale color, is surrounded by a different color, frequently in brilliant transparent hues. The most common are Cornaline d’Aleppo beads, featuring transparent red over white glasses. Beads with a white core but exteriors that are not red are called white hearts. These beads were widely traded in the Americas and in Africa.
The beads we offer for sale are from the African trade. In the America’s they were also referred to as Hudson Bay trade beads.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
The old red white-hearts of some of my favorite beads, in particular the Cornaline d'Aleppo. My research shows that while Cornalinas are a kind of white-heart (because of the white or light colored core), not all red white-hearts are Cornalinas. The C was one of the first wound beads produced in a consistent spheric shape--a breakthrough for its time; the red material was expensive to produce, as it was derived from gold oxide. Many old Cornalinas still bear the irregular surface marks that suggest hand winding occurred. I have seen Cornalinas with yellow and light green cores, but they are rare. The Name derives from "boils from Aleppo," which refer to the hot Syrian sun's damage to unprotected skin, ie bad sunburn. A fellow east African bead friend, Stella, claims that most old red-hearts collected in Africa are of Syrian origin. Signed, beadlady of Addis
Post a Comment