Punchline of a joke?
Real beads! Trade beads. Very collectable trade beads, in fact.
7 things you didn’t know about “vaseline” beads:
1: Many fluoresce. Uranium salts were once used to color beads yellow, giving this side effect. Look at ’em in daylight (before). Put ’em under blacklight (after). Whoa!
Uranium salt/vaseline beads BEFORE
Uranium salt/vaseline beads AFTER
Our #22-708-01 clear-glass vaseline bead does not fluoresce, nor does red or
opaque blue. Not all green beads either (depends on age).
2: Why are these generically called vaseline beads in “campfire parlance”? Newer reason: because of their similar shapes — often a bicone — to the beads originally called vaseline beads. Original reason: Vaseline beads were named for having the same shiny, translucent appearance as petroleum jelly.
3: However, not all have the vaseline, “greasy” colors that originally gave these beads their name. Here’s a non-slippery vaseline bead:
Non-slippery vaseline beads
4: The uranium-salt (glow-in-the-blacklight) vaseline beads were most likely made between 1830 and 1915. That’s some old, valuable beads!
5: The Czech names for the green and yellow varieties are “Anna green” and “Anna yellow”. Do you know why? (I don’t–yet. Will a knowledgeable reader chime in?)
6: Vaseline beads with uranium salts are considered safe because vitrification “traps” the uranium inside the glass. Testing suggests that you can wear uranium-salt glass beads for up to 40 years before the radiation exposure equals that of getting a single x-ray at the doctor’s office.
7: We get these beads from Mali, in West Africa. Did you know? Mali is where you’ll also find the ancient city of Timbuktu, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Here’s one more image of the spectacular ‘black-lit’ vaseline-bead effect:
5 Comments
Very interesting post! Thanks for sharing.
Whoa! never heard of ‘vaseline beads’ before, good to know… thank you.
I’ve wanted vaseline/uranium beads ever since I first heard of them. I’m so childish, I just love anything that glows in the dark or black light — or change colours (UV beads, cantaloupe swaros, alexindrite stone or glass, mood beads, GITD fimo clay etc). 😛
Slightly OT, but in regards to the Czech colour names: in Sweden there’s a well-known china tableware series called Gröna Anna, Green Anna. No idea why: the motif is green so that part of the name is understandable, but as for Anna, there’s nothing in the floral decor that explains it. I guess perhaps someone at the factory wanted to make a tribute to a woman or girl he knew?
Maneki, you inspired me to do some more searching, and I found this explanation for these color names:
“The first major producer of items made of uranium glass is commonly recognized as Josef Riedel, who named the yellow (German: Gelb) and yellow-green (German: Gelb-Grün) varieties of the glass “annagelb” and “annagrün”, respectively, in honor of his wife Anna Maria. Riedel was a prolific blower of uranium glass in Dolni Polubny, Bohemia from 1830 to 1848.” [Bohemia = the modern Czech Republic]
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_glass)
–Dave
Love Love Love uranium beads!!! recently started making jewelry & am fascinated by these color-change beads. When I was a young girl, my grandmother, who was born in Czechoslovakia, had a HUGE crucifix hanging in her bedroom,. Around it she had draped vasaline beads made into an emormous rosary bead. It was so comforting to see that glowing whenever I slept in her room…still have it & treasure both today. The cross is black wood with a carved white stone Jesus; the rosary beads must be about 3 1/2 feet long—amazing