Dirty Beads: Deal with them…
Coral and Yak Bone Necklace: Available at Atelier-Beads
We’ve had a pretty interesting conversation going on in the Rosary_Makers Yahoo group. It started out as a discussion of the Intergem show which many of us attend, but it quickly became a chat about sanitation in general, and especially the bead-worker’s dirty little secret: Beads, whether new or antique, can be really filthy. This has to be dealt with. Many people wear latex gloves along to bead shows. Others carry pocket hand sanitizers. Some people do both. This led to a conversation about cleaning beads, and I think it’s worth reproducing here.
Maya asked: Ladies РWhere do you get the purple gloves and are they latex free?  Do you
wash your beads when you get them home?
I replied:
Purple gloves are latex-free. I’m not allergic, and I use plain old white ones. You can purchase them at many pharmacies as well as supply places that provide sickroom supplies. I suspect you could do just as well with several pairs of cheap white cotton gloves.
I have many amusing bead-washing stories, and I’ll bet Margo does, too. I had a broken mala (Buddhist prayer beads) that was gorgeous–all yak bone flat rounds inlaid with silver, copper, and bits of turquoise and coral. The problem was, it had been well used, and its owner kept it anointed with what the seller told me was yak butter. (In other words, I was warned…I bought anyway.) What a smell! I aired those beads out numerous times, but I couldn’t get rid of it. I finally soaked them for a very brief time (5 minutes) in anti-bacterial dish detergent and water, then dried in a fluffy towel and left to dry on the drain board. That took care of it and has been my standard remedy. (Some Buddhists in remote areas traditionally believed that the most efficacious prayer beads were made from the
skull bones of holy men. Yak bone is a poor substitute…)
You have to distinguish between types of beads. Antique or vintage beads that have been worn will be just tatty with old nasty body oils and such. The game is to get them presentably clean without ruining the antiquity. My dish detergent does quite well. You can also use laundry detergent, which is designed to cut through body oils. If they are extremely valuable or rare or collectible, they should be left strictly alone–and probably not used in contemporary rosary or jewelry applications. Those kinds of beads are ordinarily fabulously expensive anyway. Porous beads (like Hebron beads, Ghana glass) can be wiped clean with a just barely damp rag and then dried–but be very gentle and judicious.
If you’ve got a pile of gemstone strands, they can be quite dusty or sometimes ontacminated with dirt and dust from their fabrication. They will benefit from a gentle wipe with a barely wet rag. Same holds true for vintage beads that you plan to use in a rosary–for example some 50-year-old crystals or what-have-you. Gentle wiping will not hurt. Test first.
New glass and crystal beads from Europe generally seem pretty clean to me, and I don’t bother with them.
Those dirty yak bone beads turned into a couple of rosaries and the most glorious necklace, which is shown above and still available at Atelier-Beads.
