You’ve heard the term no doubt, but what exactly is a “Bali pearl”? The answer may seem obvious – 1 pearl from Bali to fit the bill. In fact, the term more specific. It refers to the traditional hand-made, sterling silver beads from Bali, Indonesia.
Bali is a small tropical island in the middle of the vast Indonesian archipelago. The island of Hindus in a country with the largest Muslim population in the world, Bali is the cultural repository of a rich cultural heritage. This legacy includes a tradition of metal forging, which dates back thousands of years & reached a peak during the Majapahit dynasty of the 14th & 15th centuries. When Islam swept through the islands of Indonesia, the Hindu craftsmen fled to Bali, where today they continue to exercise their craft.
Although the Balinese traditionally wear only high karat gold jewellery in the 1970′s they began to work in silver for the export market & quickly gained a global reputation for intricate patterns of granulation & wire work. Extremely reasonable prices guaranteed their success. From the beginning, however, questions of authenticity & quality plagued the company.
With the rising popularity of Bali beads, unscrupulous businessmen entered the market, making it difficult for customers to navigate through a sea of potential suppliers. There are also companies that advertise “Bali beads” made in Turkey or India. In this case, they’re usually referring to a style silver beads with intricate patterns against a contrasting background, but the terminology may also be deliberately misleading. These beads are often of low or no silver content. The low-grade silver can be polished to a high finish for the temporary appearance of sterling. Alternatively, some companies cast base metal or even plastic, which can be redeemed for great impact. Other manufacturers making moulds handmade beads & threw them. Much of the detail & texture is lost in this process, but the untrained eye can easily be misled.
Unfortunately, plenty of authentic Balinese beads also made of silver of questionable purity. Make earned the designation “sterling silver” pearls must be a minimum of.9 925 silver. To reach that level consistently, it’s necessary to start with an even higher level of silver, since a certain degree of pollution is inevitable in handmade products. Forge Many are reluctant to incur additional costs such. The temptation to dilute the silver proves irresistible for many merchants, especially if they’ve been forced to cut prices.
When I decided to produce Balinese beads & then start a decade ago, there were very few beads of silver. After importing Balinese handicrafts & jewellery for several years, I was fully aware of the challenges I’d face. These challenges included the production on time, meeting with precision design & ensuring a consistent quality. To build my own production plant was a vital part of my business plan.
In a closed shop, we’re able to closely monitor the production & intervene before problems are crises. By providing meals, we assure that our smiths & nourished (hungry people don’t do a good job). By paying a fair wage, we can ensure that our employees have a vested interest in seeing the company succeed. By employing women on an equal footing with men, we do our part to empower women in a culture where they’re traditionally subservient to men. Some of these issues seem tangential to the quality, but they all add up to 1 important element – pride in the product.
Many problems with quality silver simple explanation. Poor quality tools lead to a poor quality beads & many blacksmiths can not afford or don’t have access to modern tools. The same can be said of the supplies, everything from the black solution to their high contrast Bali beads polishing compounds, the simple things, like sandpaper, come in different grades. Correct tables, torches, lights & ventilation, all these contribute to the quality of the finished product.
There are certain elements that pin backs & earring posts should really be machine made to ensure consistency & reliability. Here, we’re regularly importing state of the art supplies & equipment to assist in production. This policy is part of a conscious effort to use technology to improve traditional craftsmanship rather than replace it.
Even the highest quality silver, supplies & equipment doesn’t guarantee results. We’ve an entire department devoted to quality control, where beads are an examination by 1 of their finishing, details, size & shape. Routine testing is also necessary to ensure that forging reluctant sterling silver bag & replaced by a lower grade.
Beyond technical quality, design integrity adds another dimension to any discussion of Bali beads. There is a small core of designs that have been accepted as a generic Bali beads. Apart from these, the imagination is the only limiting factor in creating exciting new design. At Nina Designs, we invest much time & energy to create innovative new designs. As most of us come from a jewellery background, we design each new collection of pearls with matching results clasps & earring tops. This approach allows designers to create entire lines of jewellery based on 1 of the many different design themes found in our catalogue. We’ll respond to the relentless pace of the fashion world by offering new gem collections every 6 months. This allows our customers to give their jewellery lines, a fresh, updated look each season.
Unfortunately, many sellers simply Bali beads graze on what they find in the streets of Celuk, the primary production of silver village in Bali. They buy generic designs or knock-offs of others work. At best, this approach leads to a boring choice, at worst copyright infringers. In practise there are other potential complications. When the design is copied out of context they usually morph into caricatures of the original model. I have seen clips where the switch bars won’t fit through the loops & the obvious copies of my designs that the carefully arranged patterns have become blobs of arbitrary shapes.
So how can you tell a genuine pearl of high quality Bali from a lemon? Rule One: Know your supplier. Is the company well established? Do they’ve a catalogue or showroom? Have their own production? Are they committed to paying fair wages? Uses the imported goods? Is the smiths with imported equipment? Did they create their own design?
If a company meets these criteria, they’ll have a higher overhead & thus higher prices, but it’s much more likely to account for their product. Gypsy traders at low cost can invite established companies, but they’re difficult to hold accountable for shoddy products.
Reasonable people can disagree about how much a high quality sterling silver Bali bead should cost. To many, Bali beads are a commodity, bought & sold by the gramme. The gramme pricing is very competitive, putting pressure on smiths & wholesalers to cut corners & make fraudulent claims. At Nina Designs, we process each bead as a miniature work of art. As such, we buy & sell individually, increasing both the heel & the silversmith the respect they deserve. Turn, we offer our customers the highest quality beads.
