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I doubt this'll be of much interest to most of y'all; mostly I'm tired of chasing around the increasingly crumpled scrap of paper I've jotted these color-codes down onto, and figured I might as well copy them somewhere else I couldn't misplace.

Czech glass beads generally have a four- or five-digit color code. I've actually gotten to the point of remembering some of my favorite color codes verbatim (or perhaps numeratim?), frex neodymium-based "alexandrite" glass = 2021, which makes as good an example as any.

(While the uniform monochromes' basic code system is in common use by the Czech manufacturers, sometimes they split off into idiosyncratic systems for the multicolored blends; individual resellers may completely replace the original coding system with their own. Also, this chart is largely inapplicable to surface treatments, such as iris/AB/sol-gel coatings and matte etching. Some vendors use the fifth digit to indicate the surface finish-- 0: default; 6: metallic/iris, sometimes internal tortoise; 7: etched matte; 8: transparent luster-- appended to the same four-digit core, esp. for the semitransparent finishes. However, since more often there's a wide range of homologous coatings applied to the same underlying core, many manufacturers use an entirely different five-digit supplementary code to indicate those, to the point of leaving off the original core as understood.)

The first digit indicates the general color range, as listed in the table below. Some divisions seem odd but may've been dictated by the trace element(s) used as colorants; I don't know whether there's any particular reason for the order they're in.

The second digit indicates the overall inherent diapheny, i.e. where the glass itself lies on the transparent-to-opaque axis, as opposed to the effects of surface treatments. For values of 0-4, the glass is a uniform color whose precise hue and intensity are indicated by the third and fourth digits, sometimes in several discontinuous subranges such as "emerald/peridot" greens and "montana/sapphire" blues. If there is a fifth digit present, it's generally zero, so that 2021 is equivalent to 20210.

If the second digit is 5... I haven't really figured that out yet. Various parallel examples I've seen (from the same company!) are semitranslucent bicolors that resemble quartz (if transparentish) or agate (if opaqueish), opaque table-cut monochromes (with a partial overlay?), and various tricolors.

If the second digit is in the 6-8 range, the glass is a blend of two different colors, as indicated by the first and third digits. Counterintuitively, the third-digit color may be visually dominant to the point of completely encapsulating the first-digit one, like a soft-boiled egg white around its yolk. (I have no idea whether it's more technologically plausible for a "core" of the first-digit color to be laid down first and then have the third-digit color flow around it, or for the third-digit color to be laid down first and then shoot the first-digit color down through the middle.) The fourth and fifth digits seem to have something to do with the precise shade and the degree of mixing. At the moment, the last column represents my notes from the catalog of one particular supplier, but I'm not sure whether it's entirely consistent across the industry.

# Colors (1st digit) Diapheny (x#yzz) (@S.cz) X,Y
0 crystal/white transparent monochrome
1 warm yw/org/brn translucent (opal) monochrome
2 purple/violet translucent (alabaster) monochrome
3 blue opaque (chalk/matte[*]) monochrome
4 cool grey opaque (glossy/silk) monochrome
5 green (Cr-based?) mixed, opaque base (agate) translucent + transparent
6 aqua (Cu-based) mixed, translucent base (tiger) opaque + transparent
7 pink/peach mixed, transparent base (cloud) both transparent
8 cool yellows (jonquil) transparent swirl/tortoise transparent + opaque(tort)
9 vivid red/orange (not used?)


[*]: here, simply "non-glossy" rather than the standard usage for glass beads, in which "matte" usually means that the surface has been lightly etched to produce a velvety-looking surface.

Most manufacturers only bother with one level each for translucent and opaque. Sometimes the glossy/silk code (second digit 4) is used for color-swirled all-opaque blends, similar to the use of the second digit 8 for all-transparent color blends. I assume that when the latter is also used for "tortoise" blends, it's to emphasize the transparent base in contrast to the small opaque stripes; as noted in the previous paragraph, there doesn't seem to be a definite industry standard for coding "tortoise".

Costume-jewelry collectors use the terms "givre" and "sabrina" to indicate certain types of non-uniform rhinestones, though I haven't yet nailed down their criteria. So far, I *think* they use "givre" to describe distinct transparent/translucent blends (regardless of color?); multicolored transparent blends are variously referred to as "sabrina", "watermelon", or "iris" (perhaps for different color combinations?). The "cloud/agate" etc. terms within the chart are drawn from various bead manufacturers who aren't always consistent with each other either.

Some favorites/examples: 0001 (crystal), 0100 (milk opal), 2021 (alexandrite), 2398 (jet black), 3008 (cobalt), 7035 ("gold ruby" fuchsia/cranberry).

Colors in the 8k range are also sometimes called "jantar", a Slavic word for amber. I guess that would be the greenish-yellow sort of amber. Also, evidently the standard implementation of black is an extremely dark, opaque purple, though sometimes I'm plagued with beads which superficially appear to be black but produce a faint glimmer of hue when held directly up to a strong light source, revealing themselves as theoretically transparent but very dark shades of garnet red or whatever.

Most of the purples are probably made with manganese, but alexandrite glass is made with neodymium and has a color-shift effect due to converting UV wavelengths to visible (but not phosphorescent) red, so it's lavender in sunlight and blue in artificial light. Fuchsia is almost always misspelled "fuschia" and is tinted by a nifty diffraction effect from gold microcolloids, rather than inherent ionic effects. Blah blah blah :b

on 2005-09-18 04:49 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] fujifunmum.livejournal.com
I am very glad to see this. Beadage classification systems mystify me. Lately, I tend to buy "bead soup" from my favorite artists and stop driving myself crazy with the rest.

Got some heavenly stuff here, from Deana Heartman.

Happy Beading! (Made any good stuff lately? I'm thinking about encrusting Artist Cards with beads - thinking, not doing yet, lol.)

on 2005-09-23 04:18 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] wombat1138.livejournal.com
No new projects that're particularly different from previous projects. Still slacking on that other beadage article that's on a spec basis anyway; have also been semi-slacking on a necklace commission that's vaguely based on Inuyasha/Sesshoumaru, plus possible Sailor-Moonish experiments with a tray of 20mm Swarovski drops. Also short on pronouns.

The wombat-consort has been getting nasty asthma attacks; thankfully, he has not even hinted about doing anything to the cats, but we've been cleaning ferociously for the past few weeks, at least when I'm awake. Managed to vacuum most of the house last week in a burst of alertness, which has subsided this week to averaging 7 hrs/day more or less conscious. Sigh/yawn. But one of the main not-yet-cleaned-up zones that still remains is my beading corner, which is not at all tidy especially since Spot has developed the habit of coming over to investigate every time I try to work on something which he will then promptly sit on. Yay for the cat-butt seal of approval.

Hi! I'm Dawno who you helped on ML

on 2007-11-16 12:06 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] ohdawno.livejournal.com
May I "friend you"? And thank you again for the helpful posts.

Sure, go ahead...

on 2007-11-16 03:14 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] wombat1138.livejournal.com
...well hey, another Bay Arean. There's a jewelry/bead show up here in San Mateo this Thanksgiving weekend, though its usual vendors don't tend to have a lot of Czech glass, and the main glass people I can remember there are always so mobbed I can't even get to their table. (These guys (http://www.gardenofbeadin.com/), I think-- their ffp rounds seem to bottom out at 4mm, though). Then again, this is true for a lot of the tables in general.

Re: Sure, go ahead...

on 2007-11-16 03:32 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] ohdawno.livejournal.com
Thanks! I may go to that show - depends on whether my daughter, who's visiting that weekend has other things in mind for us. I like to use semi-precious stone, too, so if the glass folk are mobbed maybe I will still find some goodies.

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