Amber Beads

About

Amber beads are the light ones — natural amber is fossilized tree resin rather than stone, so a strand of chips weighs next to nothing and warms in the hand within a minute. Most of what reaches the bead trade is Baltic amber, from pale honey through cognac to a dark cherry; cut into chips and pebbles it reads as something gathered rather than made. It belongs with the other organics — wood, bone, pearl — and against brass or oxidized silver, where the warmth has something to sit against.