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The Color Palette of Vintage Beads |
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Written by Dara Spiotto
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Tuesday, 26 August 2008 |
The Color Palette of Vintage Beads:
Understanding color, The Bead WayIn my years at college I think the class I loved most was color theory. My previous perception of color was that it was an aesthetic and random thing. Oh, but no. Color is a science, and a specific one at that. My no-frills-tell-it-straight professor stood in front of us on the first day of term and shouted out that color was a science. It was all about numbers. Color is logical and easy to understand, if you know math. Oh, boy. I hate math. I thought, ‘Why am I sitting in the front row here???’
 The light goes off, and it's colorful!
So he whips out a painters swatch of colors and circles one with a black marker, then slaps it down on my desk. He confronts me: “How does a painter make this color?’. He moves to the desk beside me and whips one down on my neighbor’s desk. ‘What formula makes this color?’ She says she doesn’t know. He says by the end of the class she will know. Well, it took a whole semester for us to figure out how to figure out recipes for mixing certain colors, but it sure locked it into my head forever. It's been a real blessing to have that tidbit tucked in my brain for beading purposes. It’s a great tool to use for bead identification, since different eras and countries have produced different color pallets.
Detective work: seeking the vintage bead “What makes this bead vintage?” I would get asked this all the time during my trunk show years. I would tell them that it was made in a certain time frame, and then they’d ask how they could ever tell that just from looking at it. I told them to imagine driving on the freeway in California (involuntary shudder!) and imagine driving beside a 1960 Volkswagen Bug. At a glance, how do you know its an old car? Well, by its physical attributes, of course. The shape, size and color will give it away, making it painfully obvious. Vintage beads are the same way.
 Why are vintage colors special?
In the early days, glass crafters experimented with colors, using a variety of materials that are hazardous and poisonous, such as gold, arsenic, oxides and precious metals. Cutting costs and looking for ways to increase safety caused these crafters to adopt other techniques for making glass. During WWII, many factories went up in smoke, and took with them recipes for creating colors. In an attempt to regain them, much expirimentation took place and resulted in happy accidents. For example, the recipe for “opal” finish was lost in the war. In an attempt to get it back, the “greasy” glass colors were created. These beads were produced for a short time, and eventually when the “opal” technique was rediscovered, greasy glass beads were pulled from the production line. So greasy glass is collectible with a history and a story.
Looking for vintage… the pastel example Color is a great place to start bead identification. If you hold up a pastel pink bead made today against a bead made in, say 1945 Germany, and they’re pretty much alike, you’ll notice that the bead made today isn’t really PINK. Its more peach. Why is that? Because the bead made in 1945 is made from a glass recipe that contained things different ingredients, like real gold. In fact, pink, purple and red contain the most gold of any other color. The pastel color rule applies to all colors. True colors, in soft shades can be found in vintage stock, while today stock misses the mark nearly every time.
Delicious real vintage colors  Another good example of a great vintage color is cobalt. A cobalt bead from long ago has a deep, rich blue color, and when you hold it up to the light it will give you goosebumps! Cobalt made today is a lovely shade of rich blue, but not nearly as gorgeous as the old stuff. Why? Because to make cobalt the old way you had to use high percentage amounts of cobalt oxide, a metal ore. In the beads made today, only 5% of cobalt oxide is used per ton of glass. It makes a lovely substitute for cobalt glass that’s pretty close, but not like the real thing.
Using color as a style  Some countries have used colors in certain styles that help identify the beads as vintage. Long ago, in flapper era, the Japanese made beads in small rounds by the ton, to accommodate the pearl craze for people on budget. They made so many of these beads that they ended up with tons of stock in warehouse storage. Being thrifty, they re-introduced these same beads 20-40 years later with new glass colored textures on the outside. So the inside of the bead is white, and the outside is colored. Its cool to have a 1920 Japanese druk in opaque white, with a layer of color added in 1940!
The Germans used colors in their own way, and still do today. When they manufactured a bead, they would reproduce it in every color combination you can imagine. They’re famous for two-tone glass and in a few cases the colors together clash like cherry red and mint. Most of them are beautiful. Sometimes clear and then another color, sometimes two opaque colors, sometimes two transparent colors.
Discontinued and retired beads, and rare colors  This was a great way to make beads collectible. If beads were put into production for a limited time only, either in shape or color, then those beads are rare and collectible. Swarovski is famous for doing limited production on certain colors and finishes. Other rare colors to look for are cranberry, opaque chocolate, tanzanite purple, and opaque ivory to name a few.
The next time you’re at the bead store, take a walk down the vintage section. Take a look at the colors there, and then browse through the contemporary beads. You’ll notice a big difference. The next time your bead shopping, consider yourself more equipped to recognize vintage beads when you stumble across them! And then pick up a basket full to buy for your stash!
"Often the mere process of learning becomes a prize richer than any finished project.” ~ Marla Gassner, The Bead and I
Resources: http://reviews.ebay.com/Vintage-Beads-What-is-vintage-and-what-is-not_W0QQugidZ10000000000129462?ssPageName=BUYGD:CAT:-1:LISTINGS:5 |
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