I used Vinyl in the title, because that has become the common name for these beads, but there is no truth whatsoever in widely published nonsense they were made of recycled phonograph records.
They are labeled as “Vulcanic” on the original Bohemian bead factory sample cards in the Jablonec Museum. And just to be sure that no future misnomers get started here, they have nothing to do with volcanoes either
They are an early form of plastic designed to imitate and/or expand on the types of heishi (clam, snail, ostrich egg and coconut shell) already popular in Africa at the time.
Bohemian bead producers sent their intrepid agents worldwide to discover what beads people were using, and what they might like to see reproduced in colorful glass or other materials.
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