Antique and Vintage Beads, Part II: Vintage Lucite Beads
Lucite, a plastic, was first introduced by the DuPont Chemical Company in 1937. It was marketed as an alternative to Bakelite, then a very popular material for making costume jewelry. During the late 1930s and early 1940s, new colors and styles of Lucite beads were created including marbleized, jewel tones, transparents and stripes. The jewelry makers Avon, Coro and Trifari used many of these brilliant and wonderful beads in their costume jewelry designs, many of which are now highly collectible.
The highest quality vintage Lucite beads are “lathe turned”, meaning that they are very finely finished on a lathe, and will not show any seams.
Lucite beads are a wonderfully versatile addition to gemstone and crystal beads because of their whimsical shapes and deep, rich colors. For a genuine vintage look and feel, try mixing vintage Lucite beads with vintage chain and other findings to create jewelry that could have walked off the pages of Vogue in the 1950s.
Below are a few samples of work that I have created with vintage Lucite beads. The first piece, titled "Aloha" uses tiny vintage Lucite flowers to accent the large Imperial Jasper cabochon from Gary Wilson. The second piece, "Polly Wanna Cracker" was created as a birthday present for my mother the year that she wanted (and couldn't have) a parrot. The final piece is a strand of large Lucite round beads in a wonderful, intense blue that are accented with Czech firepolished beads and another set of spaceship-shaped copper-colored vintage Lucite.
The next time you want a wonderful, lightweight bead to add a whimsical touch to your project, try vintage Lucite!
Sources for vintage Lucite beads:
Comments
Thank you for discussion regarding vintage and antique beads. I used to go to a wonderful vintage bead vendor, but alas – he decided to close shop and retire. It is difficult to find them at the gem fairs.
Vintage & lucite beads are wonderful to use! Check out garage sales, ebay, and thrift shops too. They are a great source to find goodies!
Your Aloha piece is absolutely stunning! Thank you for sharing!
I found the best place for those vintage beads are at estate sales. Most people do not know what their grandmother has and mark everything as “everything must go” prices. Great finds. I have a great stash from my grandmother and mother-in-law.
Don’t forget to shop your local bead stores. We carry a vast selection of lucite here at My Garden of BEADin’! They are wonderful added to any design in a simple or largely embellished way!