Bead Barmy

Where do all your lovely beads come from? Today, Geoff takes over Gemma’s Diary slot to tell you about their factory visit and how your beads and charms are made.

It’s a dirty job

It will come as no surprise to know that the manufacture of your favourite charms is a relatively grubby industrial process. We visited a typical plant in Zheijang province, northern China. The three principal buildings were based around a sizeable central courtyard and we are pleased to report that the working areas were well lit & ventilated with workers kitted out in unfashionable protective industrial workwear. The workplace is relatively small, around 20 workers on the day of our visit, expanding to nearly double that figure at full capacity.

The raw materials

The untreated raw zinc arrives in huge lava looking lumps and is often refined into bullion effect bars for easier use.

Moulded to perfection

That’s the easy bit, now we have to turn that into lovely jewellery pieces. The first question is how many pieces are required? For shorter runs a rubber mould and centrifugal system are used, the moulds are cheaper and quicker to produce but only last a hundred or so runs.

Metal moulds are more robust but require a significantly more labour intensive process. The mould is placed into the casting machine, the zinc is melted, drawn into the mould, stamped and dropped into the hopper beneath. Next up is the tumbler, which rotates to knock the bead off of the sprue (the waste metal left after casting). The bits we are looking for of course are the smaller items which easily detach and fall into a tray underneath. Waste not want not is the philosophy with any leftovers so they are all shovelled up and melted back down for re-use.

Rough and ready

The tray of rough charms is then sieved to remove more waste then off we go to antiquing. This effect is produced by using large porous bags to dip and drip to create an even coating. They get dipped a couple of times, then washed in small batches.

Shiny, happy beads

The final manufacturing process is several hours in smaller polishing tumblers. The workers sort the finished items, remove any small fragments of waste that remain and weigh and bag up the items. These workers described themselves as the happiest in the plant because they were sitting down all day
 

The small downside of short run rubber moulds is that the holes often require a little extra definition. In this case a worker needs to place strips like thin rubber bands into the moulds. The top and bottom of the moulds are fixed together and placed in the centrifuge. Molten zinc is poured into the mould and spun for a few seconds. The items have to be removed from the sprue by hand but from there the rest of the process remains the same.

Stocking up

We had a very good morning here as you can see by the Beads Unlimited buyer (Gemma) shopping in the storeroom. I could write the same length again about the lunch which never seems to end and is always enough to feed an army.

There will be more from Gemma in the next day or two with more factory scenes, no doubt, more food pics and a sneaky preview or two of beads to come!

The top picture shows Geoff with one of the bead workers families.

Posted by: Gemma