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Thursday, December 2, 2010

Bead School

I have already been stocking up on more vintage beads, and at the moment I am loving the Givre beads! So what the heck is a Givre bead? First of all it is pronounced gee-vray.  I know you have seen these before, probably worn by your grandmother or mother,  these were very fashionable in the 1950's and 60's. These  beads were manufactured   between 1940's and 1970's and  were  made of transparent glass  fused around a translucent colored core.



Usually the bead had a color within a clear casing, although there are milky opaque Givre beads. Apparently, Givre means "frost" in French.




Of course you can find them in many shapes, ovals, round, cubed and squishy shapes, as well as faceted, smooth and even in the sugar or bumpy encased versions, which are some of my faves!


The majority of these beads, especially the high quality ones, were made in West Germany and Austria, but many other vintage  beauties were  made in Czechoslovakia and Japan.

They are little gems of history from days gone by!
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5 comments:

Jane Perala said...

Those are beautiful, I love the pink ones!

BeadedTail said...

They are all so pretty but I love those blue beads!

Catherine said...

So pretty! Sometimes I just sit in the middle of my craft room and look at all my lovely beads, paper and trinkets. They make me happy! :)

Happy weekend friend!
xo Catherine

Anonymous said...

Very cool. I love the milky ones.

Lin said...

Thanks for telling me how to say it so I don't look like an idiot! ;) Those are lovely beads.

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