Shape: Tube
Circa: 1980s
Quantity per pack: 10 Beads
Measurements:
- Width across: 8mm to 10mm thick
- Threading Hole: 2mm to 3.5mm
- Length: 18mm
- Sizes are approximate as all the beads are hand crafted.
- As a general rule, if a bead is 8mm thick with a 2mm hole, all of them will be. Same as if the bead is a 10mm thickness with a 2.5mm hole. We have listed all of them in the one category rather than separate them out. It has been a huge job to get all our Vintage Fimo online, so we tried to streamline some of the categories. If you need exact measurements for a style you like, please flick us an email and query the size.
Making the Beads - a simplified explanation in how they are made:
- Polymer clays of different colours are made into a long 'sausage' to make the pattern.
- This cane is then pulled and pulled, similar to how candy and glass kare made. This can made a thick cane into a long thin cane ready for bead making.
- The cane is then sliced into shapes to make beads &/or pendants.
- These tubes have been made by first having a long 'core' of one colour polymer clay.
- Slices from the cane, or even scraps from previously made pendants etc, are then pressed closely together all along the core.
- The resulting long sausage of veneered core is then sliced into beads.
Can you see all the colours & shapes in these amazing beads? They were made in Capetown, South Africa many many years ago & we have stock of these in so many varieties! These old polymer clay beads feel very velvety to touch, whereas modern clay beads like this just feel cold & like plastic, even though they are clay. The quality and craftsmanship of these pendants and beads are out of this world!
Please see our other listings for more shapes & themes as we get them listed.