Lapidary / Gemstone Community Forum

Here is a short video clip I put together of a Polish bead-maker working with Amber at a small town crafts market around Lublin, Poland a couple of years ago....the man was using an old spinning wheel to turn the beads on a spindle and with a glass shard from broken light-bulbs he was turning some amazing beads...the natural curve of the broken glass really helped to form the beads.....
http://www.youtube.com/v/sHzjtbdH2I8&hl=en_US&fs=1?rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999

The Cow is cool! Thanks for sharing.

Ahhhh....Good ol' Polish ingenuity. Great clip!

That was great.. !

Brings me back to thinking again about starting a thread about ancient lapidary techniques.

A museum piece, from the European Ice Age (Paleolithic), a find from the Ukraine, Amber was possibly used for decorative or ceremonial purposes rather than utilitarian....this ceremonial knife has the kind of patination you cannot fake, there are some fresh chips that make it obvious, I will try to get better photos of it later


(https://gemstone.smfforfree4.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amberaz.com%2Fimages%2Fambertool_k5mz.jpg&hash=e07972080aeb82f72eb599cb3b43ad61)

Everything about that video was cool~ the guy, his outfit, the cobblestone street, the cow...  Of course and his bead making technique.

It is hard to envision a ceremonial knife form that piece.  It definitely takes a trained eye.

Awesome bead making video!  Just goes to show you that a little ambition and a desire to create can turn into something really amazing.  I give that man kudos for carving all those beads.  To bad it's probably impossible for us to buy them from him!

Amazing how quickly we adapt to any new technologies and totally forget how things used to be and can still be done.
Thanks for posting that clip.

Oh Thomas:)
This was such a neat video to see. And I dearly love amber. It feels warm against your skin. I wish I had a room full of it to wallow in. LOL
The sons gave me a pendant a few Christmases ago. It is Baltic Amber.
Tell us and show us more Thomas about your travels please:)

My wife, Vicky, and I went on a vacation through Poland and parts of Germany in 2007, I am a part of the bead collecting and research community and I take an active roll in participating in the best bead collecting forum on the net, here is a short recap of the vacation with more pictures of the bead-maker, who btw can be found online, (a side note): Beads and lapidary go hand in hand as most all stone beads are made by lapidary methods, also many glass types....click on the to see my vacation in Amber country:

http://beadcollector.net/cgi-bin/anyboard.cgi?fvp=/openforum/&cmd=iYz&aK=51960&iZz=51960&gV=0&kQz=&aO=1&iWz=0 (http://beadcollector.net/cgi-bin/anyboard.cgi?fvp=/openforum/&cmd=iYz&aK=51960&iZz=51960&gV=0&kQz=&aO=1&iWz=0)

This was a wonderful journey through your eyes Thomas. Thank you so much.
I enjoyed seeing the people and the beads and the architect and the shops and the food and all of it.
I can tell they love color and so do I:)
I would never have seen this place if it hadnt been for your generousity Thomas.
Thank you again:)

I think this a great idea.  I studied archaeology in college.  I've always been intrigued by such things!   yes16

start it up,  Im a digger/diver of artifatcs here in Fl. I have some shell beads and some trade b eads from a site from the 1860`s?

if you want to make beads like that my buddy Danny Lopacki has a great tutorial with that kinda set up but with modern equipment for y our Genie or wheel.

He`s another bead freak toocool1 and does some AWESOME work