Latest Bead Stories

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a voluntary recall of Action Products International jewelry craft kits due to risk of lead exposure. Two kits, the Abalone and Venetian Carnevale Necklace Craft Kits, marketed for children, include necklace clasps with high levels of lead, CPSC said in a statement. About 2,900 of the craft kits were imported from China by Action Products International Inc. of Ocala, Fla. They were sold nationwide from June 2007 through April 2009 for...

Largest 17th century bead repository found in coastal GeorgiaFrench and Chinese blue glass, Dutch layered glass, Baltic amber: roughly 70,000 beads manufactured all over the world have been excavated at one of the Spanish empire's remotest outposts, the Santa Catalina de Guale Mission. The beads were found as part of an extensive, ongoing research project led by a team of scientists from the American Museum of Natural History on St. Catherines Island off the coast of Georgia. Comprising the...

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a voluntary recall of Discount School Supply Jesus Fish Beads due to a lead paint violation. The fish-shaped beads imported from China by Discount School Supply of Monterey, Calif., include surface paint with high levels of lead, the Commission said. About 500 packages of assorted-colored beads were sold through the Discount School Supply Web site from August 2006 through December 2008 for about $5. The beads have the word Jesus and the...

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a voluntary recall of ImagiPLAY bead maze toys due to a laceration hazard. The trees on the toys that feature wooden beads that children push along a wire maze can detach exposing a sharp, metal screw, the commission said. About 500 of the toys were sold nationwide in three styles -- Apple Tree Bead Maze, Cactus Tree Bead Maze and Palm Tree Bead Maze -- for about $13 from August 2008 through October 2008. Consumers were advised to take...

As temperatures drop, jewelry trends heat up. Jewelry is essential to every woman's wardrobe, especially this time of year when calendars are booked with festive celebrations, says Bonni Davis, vice president of sales for lia sophia. For anyone struggling to find the right accessories to complement their special outfits this holiday - you're in luck. Davis provides advice on spicing up your style this season. Davis provides the following helpful tips for this holiday season: --...

Researchers at Wake Forest University are using nanotechnology to search for new cancer-fighting drugs through a process that could be up to 10,000 times faster than current methods.The "Lab-on-Bead" process will screen millions of chemicals simultaneously using tiny plastic beads so small that 1,000 of them would fit across a human hair.  Each bead carries a separate chemical, which can be identified later if it displays the properties needed to treat cancer cells.  One batch of...

Capricorn Pharma has signed an agreement with Teva Pharmaceuticals USA to develop products using its proprietary Korkoat technology platform. According to Capricorn, korkoat beads accommodate high drug loads; modified drug release can be achieved by incorporating release-modifying agents inside the bead, in the coating, or in both. Rao Cherukuri, founder, president and CEO of Capricorn, said: "We are proud of our technologies, which offer flexible solutions to difficult formulation...

By Kevin Mayhood, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio Jul. 9--There may be water inside the moon, according to new research. A study published today in the journal Nature shakes up long-held assumptions that the moon is dry. This discovery suggests that there was -- and still could be -- water deep inside the moon. In fact, the researchers say glass beads collected by Apollo astronauts nearly 35 years ago contain as much water as collected from ocean ridges on Earth. The beads were formed by...

By Bower, Bruce ARCHAEOLOGY Archaeologists may not be fashion divas, but they dig antique jewelry. Consider the discovery of 4,000-year-old gold and stone beads in southeastern Peru. These crafted items, the oldest examples of worked gold in the Americas by about 600 years, were strung together into a necklace, say Mark Aldenderfer of the University of Arizona in Tucson and his colleagues. An excavation of a burial pit containing the partial remains of an adult and a child at a small site...

WASHINGTON -- Ancient beads that may represent the oldest attempt by people at self-decoration have been identified from sites in Algeria and Israel.The beads, made from shells with holes bored into them, date to around 100,000 years ago, some 25,000 years older than similar beads discovered two years ago in South Africa, researchers report in Friday's issue of the journal Science."Our paper supports the scenario that modern humans in Africa developed behaviors that are considered modern...