Here is a recent purchase of vintage Czech seed-beads. These came from Germany.
I've seen that this kind of bundles of beads are sometimes called as master hanks. Because they consists from many smaller hanks that have many strings of beads.
There were many steps when creating these kind of beads. The hole of the beads was created during the drawing of the tube,
either by blowing air into it or by pressing a metal cylinder lengthwise
into the center of the glass cylinder. The glass tube was pinched from both ends so the air got trapped in the tube. The glass tube was then pulled long and thin while hot. The cross-sections of the tubes were round in the beginning. These beads here have cross-section of six sides. The glass tubes are then cut into little
2-3mm pieces and faceted behind the grinder. These seed beads here had a special metallic coating as well.
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Masterhank of seed beads from Czechoslovakia. Beads have six sides, faceting and a bronze finish.
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Here's a closeup. The main facets come from the glass tubes cross-section being 6-sided.
The facets that are added casually to corners were grinded.
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This dark bronze seed beads are quite heavy. Can you imagine the amount of work that went into these?
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These beads shimmer so lovely!
Siin on hiljutine ost Tšehhi seemnehelmeid. Ma sain need Saksamaalt.
Olen märganud, et selliseid suuremaid helmeste "vihtusid" nimetatakse vahel "master hank", sest sellised koosnevad mitmest väiksemast, mis köidavad kokku mitmeid niite helmestega.
Selliste helmeste tegemiseks kulus mitu erinevat sammu. Helmeste auk tegemiseks tehakse klaasvardasse auk, tuubi otsad näpistati kinni, et õhk jääks sinna lõksu. Klaas tõmmatakse pikaks ja peenikeseks. Klaastuubi läbimõõt oli alguses ainult ümar, hiljem lisandusid teised võimalused. Need helmed siin on näiteks kuusnurkse läbilõikega. Kui klaastuub on saanud õige pikkuse ja läbimõõdu, lõigatakse see 2-3mm pikkusteks tükkideks. Need helmed siin on veel lisaks lihvitud ja kaetud erinevate metallik-värvidega.
