Cinnabar Beads from London

When I visited London, I finally found my cinnabar beads! I’ve been looking for the right ones and here they were! Cinnabar beads means something special to me. They are the color grand slam in the world of “natural” beads. No wonder the mineral cinnabar really is poisonous! Apparently cinnabar has always been the worlds number one supplier of mercury during the centuries.

Ancient Cinnabar Beads

The most common use of cinnabar is in Chinese carved lacquer work. This technique originated from the Song Dynasty. The danger of mercury poisoning was reduced in ancient lacquerware by entraining the powdered pigment in lacquer, but if the pieces were accidentally destroyed the poison was released.

Nowdays the toxic pigment is replaced by a resin-based polymer that approximates the appearance of pigmented lacquer, which is totally safe!

Make your own Cinnabar beads with "Faux Surfaces in Polymer Clay"

Make Faux Cinnabar Beads

You can also make you own cinnabar beads and pendants with mixing the right colors of polymer clay. This is so fun!

I found a great cinnabar recipe on page 81 in Faux Surfaces In Polymer Clay. It truly looks like any cinnabar bead you bought in a shop. Anyway this book has some incredible polymer clay recipes for faux stones and other surfaces.

With the cinnabar beads I bought I will make some kind of necklace, the idea is not finished yet but in the process to be…

I’ve seen some really sweet cinnabar and turquoise bead combinations… And what about cinnabar and lava beads, that’s gotta be something! I’ll think about it…

Meanwhile here are some more photos of my bead shopping in London!

Coffe break with pies is a must when bead shopping...

...and of course we need a little bit of hugs!