Black Cinnabar Beads Necklace

It’s funny that I can’t seem to take my eyes of cinnabar beads every time I see them in the bead shop! Hehe… maybe I just shouldn’t look…? Anyway, this time I found some black cinnabar beads! The heart shaped one will be perfect as a pendant in this necklace.

I had a conversation with a friend at work some time ago and we were talking about cinnabar beads, how beautiful they are! But we were also discussing what they are made of. My friend guessed porcelain… But is it? I decided to take a look into that. Hmm what are cinnabar beads really made of… This is what I dug up:

What is cinnabar?

Cinnabar, also called Chinese Lacquer, is a famous Chinese handicraft. Traditionally, cinnabar items were created by painting multiple layers of lacquer onto it, letting the item dry between each coat, and then carving the resulting layers of lacquer into amazing patterns. The name comes from the toxic red mineral cinnabar (mercury sulfide) that was once added to give the special red color to the lacquer.

Now days, cinnabar beads and jewelry are formed from a dyed red resin which contains no harmful cinnabar. However, it looks pretty much the same. Red is the most popular color of cinnabar jewelry, but there is also blue, black, brown and green.

Black Cinnabar Bead Necklace

Making Black Cinnabar Bead Necklace

Together with the cinnabar beads in this necklace I used turquoise chips and some black glass beads. It’s fun to make double strand necklaces, combining the beads in a wider perspective to make the necklace come together nicely.

The full cinnabar necklace on display