Bead Questions

[lampworkbyamy.livejournal.com]

So I recently acquired a really huge amount of thrift store jewelry for de-construction. Like, it's crazy how much. I have been sorting through it for a few days now and haven't even taken a lot of it apart - and I'm still only part way through the sorting... like I said, it's a crazy amount of stuff. A lot of it is total crap, I have thrown away quite a bit of it that I don't see any possibility of using. There have been some cool finds too, some really unique stuff.

I am finding that a lot of it is really hard to identify though, which is what brings me here. There are lots of beads that I suspect are some sort of plastic. They are very light weight and don't look like they're worth much - some are scuffed and damaged. There are TONS of those plastic fake pearl type beads in many sizes.

Now I never buy plastic beads myself - I do lampwork and most of the jewelry I make is of semi precious stones, silver, and other glass beads. But I am also a pack rat and I can't bring myself to just throw these beads out. What I want to do is sort them, and possibly resell some of them. When I looked on Etsy, I saw that people seem to be selling plastic beads there, so I guess that some plastic beads have some value. But how do you tell what *kind* of plastic beads are? Also there are some beads that I can't tell if they are painted wood, or plastic, or really light weight cheap metal. I think maybe they are a plastic base with a metal coating, but I can't be sure.

I am just really lost here. Firstly, in what's even worth keeping from this whole mess of junk jewelry, secondly, in what people would actually be interested in buying (and if so, what the value is), and thirdly, how the heck would I describe this stuff to a potential customer?

Are there different kinds of plastic beads? Are they mostly acrylic, lucite? Are there any types of plastic beads that spring to your mind that you would say throw them out? (Like all those thousands of plastic pearls, for example? I am personally not a fan of them.)

Also in this stash are a lot of little seashells, like tiny little drilled full shells (not shards), that I think are real shells, but I don't know how to tell for sure. Would they be more likely plastic too? They don't seem to have a seam, but they are so light weight, I just don't know.

And one more question, what about all those chains? There are hundreds and hundreds of metal chains of various sizes, lengths, thicknesses... and I'm sure they're all base metal. And they're all really dirty. Any ideas for what I should do to rehabilitate them?

It's frustrating me trying to get info out of the internet, because the majority of sites are selling stuff. So... does anyone know of a website that gives good advice for identifying different types of beads?

Here is a pic of a small portion of my sorting operation:


To give you an idea of how much stuff I got, this is about 1/3rd of a bag, and I have 12 bags to get through. It weighs pounds and pounds.


I'm probably totally crazy to even want to resurrect this stuff at all, but I am having SO much fun going through it. I would really like to give as much of it as possible a second life. I might even end up giving some of it away, like to a kids' center or something.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or advice, CraftGrrls!