Recognising Nila
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Three strands of ancient Nila beads showing the effects of many years of being beneath the desert sands and the skill it takes the African who finds them to be able to recognise that these seemingly innocuous white beads are actually beautiful Nila, covered in a thick white coating. One expert told us that beads found in sand are usually quite clean, it is those buried beneath soil that are often covered in detritus.
One gentle type of recovery process is described.

A mixed collection of 'white' glass / stone beads with a few clues from broken and rubbed edges, where the blue / green Nila colour is showing

After an all-night soaking in the abrasive mixture and a few hours in baby oil .. most of the true colours are shown

After a couple of hours soaking in a gently abrasive denture cleaning liquid, more colours start to appear. The beads on the left were then slightly oiled.

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These strands have been Sold and are shown for Reference only

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