Pretty glass indian beads..

[Marbleguy]

I gave up trying to post pics at TreasureNet long ago. Either I'm retarded or my computer can't do it. Anyhow,I live in a desert ghost town and have excavated hundreds of colored glass beads at an old Shoshone campsite. To set everyones' minds at ease this is on private property with permission from the owner and I'm donating the beads to the local museum. The beads are mostly made in Murano small tube-section beads in colors of white,green,sky blue,dark blue,pink and yellow. Am finding semi-transparent cobalt blue beads made using the winding method. These might've been made in China. Anyone here a bead expert?

 

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[Felinepeachy]

Marbleguy, I just sent you a pm. I would love to see your finds and will soon. I'm sure of it

 

[diggummup]

What size are the beads? You say Murano? Do you mean they are Millefiori lampwork type beads or solid colored? Are they round beads? Would be great to see some pics when possible.

 

[Marbleguy]

The Murano are solid color..

From what I've researched the Murano are called 'Pony beads' and the several transparent cobalt blue beads made thru the winding method are 'Padre beads'. My desert ghost town is within pony-riding distance from several of the 21 Spanish missions running the length of California San Juan Capistrano being well known. In 1956 at the age of ten I with my parents visited Venice,Italy then took a boat out to the glass-making factories on the Island of Murano. And so it would be immensely apropriate that the beads I'm finding came from Murano circa late 1700s to 1850 or so. I believ Spanish padres gave the beads to the local Shoshone. And so what I am excavating is a moment in time composed of the meeting of two cultures. One stone age and one modern.

 

[Marbleguy]

Hi Peachy. Got the email.

But no pics. There was a series of pic-thingies. I clicked on them. Nothing happened. I'll try again tomorrow. Will be dark soon and I must prepare for nightfall. Must feed my six rescued cats,desert tortoise 'Speedy' (licensed) and a host of friendly desert critters who depend on me. The beads are stunning. Forty days of digging and I've only excavated 1% of the site. I figure it'll take me two years to finish the work if I live that long.

 

[Marbleguy]

I give up..

Only way I could post pics of the beads is if I email someone who CAN post pics who then posts the pics. I've been thru this before at TreasureNet trying to post pics of marbles I've dug up. I'd really like to know why it is so damn hard to post a jpg image.

 

[Flint-seeker]

Re: I give up..

Only way I could post pics of the beads is if I email someone who CAN post pics who then posts the pics. I've been thru this before at TreasureNet trying to post pics of marbles I've dug up. I'd really like to know why it is so damn hard to post a jpg image.

I'd be happy to assist, as well. I do it for buzzgator now, too... I'll send you a pm with my personal email address you can send the images to. I can put them in this posting for you.

Thanks!

Shane

 

[mamabear]

I want to see pics too. I love old beads. sounds like you have a great spot for digging. am looking forward to reading more.
thank you for rescuing the cats & other critters. speedy is a good name for the tortise. it's fun to watch them "run" when crossing the road. but if it's a busy road I stop & help them to the side. if you have more trouble posting pix let me know between us all at TN we should be able to figure it out.

 

[Flint-seeker]

Here's the pics!

 

[Felinepeachy]

Marbles, did you get my pm with detailed photos of step by step instructions on how to post images?

 

[Marbleguy]

Hi Peachy and Mamabear..

Hi Peachy. The photo thingy arrived but the little pics of were cut in half. Could'nt open them or anything else. I've already gone thru this dedicating a full week of trying to post pics at the bottles and marbles boards. Result;failure. So I have become resolved to pic-posting ignomity till hell freezes. To Mamabear. It's nice you save the turtles from getting squashed. Just about everyone in my desert ghost town has a (licensed) tortoise. Tortoise live a long,long time. An old man in town has a tortoise he got when he was a child. The tortoise is in fine shape which gives hope to the old man that he'll live 150 years like the tortoise. At the excavation site in Borosalvay Canyon I've set up a little feeding station for the critters. A quart bowl of fresh water and clean,flat surface upon which I daily place sliced peaches,sliced apples,carrots,zuchinni,etc for about 30 antelope squirrels which look just like chipmuncks. And a jackrabbit enjoys the meal,too. And little sagebrush birds love the two pounds of wild birdseed I set out for them.

 

[Marbleguy]

This is where the beads came from (Murano)

A major source of glass beads used in the fur trade was Venice, Italy. Venetians held a near monopoly on the bead industry for nearly 600 years. A guild of Venetian glass makers existed in 1224 A. D.. Around 1291, a large portion of the Venetian glass industry moved to Murano, an island north of Venice; city fathers feared an accident with one of the glass furnaces could destroy the city.

For over two hundred years, beads were made in Murano by a method known as "winding." With this method, beads were made individually by drawing a molten glob of glass out of the furnace and winding it around an iron rod. Glass of another color could then be added, or the bead could be decorated with a design. Coloring agents were added to the molten glass: cobalt made blue; copper produced green; tin made a milky white; and gold resulted in red. Wound beads from a master glassmaker were so perfect it was hard to find a seam where the different molten glasses merged.


The glass industry was able to keep up with demand using these two methods until the mid- to late 1400’s. Once European countries started sending ships around the world, ship captains and explorers carried beads made of glass, porcelain, and metal to use as gifts, or for the fur trade. The slow method of winding beads could not keep up with this new demand.

Around 1490, Venetians started to make beads from tubes of drawn glass; Egyptians may have used this process centuries before. With this procedure, a master glassmaker took a glob of molten glass from the furnace and formed a cylinder. After working the cylinder into the desired shape, he attached a rod to the cylinder. An assistant took the end of the rod and run down a long corridor before the glass cooled. The drawn glass tube was about one hundred and twenty meters long. The length of the tube and the amount of glass used determined the size of the beads. Once the tubes cooled, they were cut into meter long pieces. These pieces were cut into beads of various sizes. The cut beads were placed in a large metal drum containing lime, carbonate, sand, carbon, and water. While the metal drum turned, heat was applied to the outside causing the rough-cut edges to be smoothed. After the beads were smooth, they were cleaned and then placed in a sack of fermented bran and vigorously shaken to polish them.

 

[flintdigger]

Those are some nice looking beads.

 

[Marbleguy]

Found a mano stone at the site..

The thing is so heavy I can barely lift it. That tells me that the indian woman who wore those beads had muscles like Popeye. When her indian husband asked "What's for dinner tonight,honey?" she replied
"Fix it yourself you bum" and he did,meekly.

 

[Felinepeachy]

Marbles, I pm'ed you my number if you want to call me I will walk you through posting pics step by step.

Don't give up. I think yu would really enjoy posting more if you could get pics on here

 

[Marbleguy]

Easier to email me..

The DOW is dropping below 12000. 2012 can't come soon enough for me. And I just got hit on minutes ago by a drive-by seller of frozen meats that snagged me for $160 on my credit card. So I hope a webcrawler does'nt find my email address but here it is. Long distance phone calls cost a lot [email protected]

 

[DeAnn]

Beautiful !!