If they’re full of white powdery stuff, that’s bead release, & often found in chinese/mass production lampwork–those beads (if they’re lampwork) are likely not annealed & may be more prone to breakage, so clean them carefully. I use a pipe-cleaner & dish-liquid–it does NOT get all the stuff out, but will take out some of it…
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Dish soap is safe on anything “not coated” (no aurora coatings, etc)–just plain glass is fine to wash. Windex is ok too. If they’re painted/coated/glazed/etc, I’d just wipe them (test one bead) with a damp cloth gently one at a time….
Sticky–other than a few gemstones I’ve never gotten anything sticky–but I’d think that any liquid soap would handle that–(on the gemstones I think it’s been the cutting oil that wasn’t cleaned off–but that’s just a guess?)
(Personally, while FMG has a great catalog, I’ve found that I can usually do better price & quality-wise elsewhere~~I usually only buy closeout & resale stuff from them~~anything that I have to do too much “processing” on before I use it makes it more expensive than it’s worth–I’d rather pay $1 more & not spend 2 hours scrubbing each bead hole, or checking for chips, etc…)
~~Lyn
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In this video tutorial, Nicole Grabow, Objects Conservator at the Midwest Art Conservation Center, demonstrates how to clean glass beads using a brush and a moist swab. Her tutorial illustrates the difference between cleaning beads held loosely together on a string or wire and bead beads tightly sewn together on a medallion or other piece of regalia. This tutorial supplements Grabow's session, "Conservation for Cleaning Glass Beadwork" given at the 2015 ATALM annual conference held in Washington DC, on September 9-12, 2015.
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