Featured These beads feel strange. Coral? Maybe?

hi guys!

weekend is almost here. These feel odd to me. Not light and a weird texture. Not pearls that I have ever seen. They do sorta give the feel on the teeth but not exactly. They vary a little in shape and are not completely round. I thought vintage but the string is snow-white. They were strung very tightly and then... I popped the string fiddling with it. Not sure if they have ever been worn

the only thing I could think of was coral but I did t even realize they made beads out of coral til I started looking. They are not as shiny or slick as some examples I found. They almost have a porous feel to them

any help is very much appreciated

thank you

 

Wood maybe? Lacquered black?

Not all black coral is shiny or slick. This is an inlaid black coral bead from Socotra, an island off the south coast of Yemen. It is actually quite small, and you really need to strain your eyes to see the layering and golden striations, but they are there.

 

I was noticing no striations. But these are definitely not wood

 

What about whitby jet as opposed to French or glass?

 

I'm not seeing Whitby jet. French jet is glass btw.

 

From the look of the bead end these are molded rather than drilled.

 

That’s what I meant. Lol. I know they are glass. These beads are so odd.

 

So weird molded glass?

 

Are they cold or warm?

 

Cool to the touch

 

That rules out jet. But they don't look like jet to me anyway.

 

Good to know that. I think I’ve only ever had one piece of it and it was a long time ago