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Subject:Why cloisonne beads?
Posted By: beadiste Sat, Nov 25, 2017 IP: 65.74.52.120

A continuing puzzle for me is why the Beijing Enamel Factory (and presumably satellite cloisonne workshops) started manufacturing cloisonne necklace beads in the 1950s. Why did they think this would be a lucrative export item?

Was it perhaps because a woman, Qian Meihua 钱美华, was part of the factory management and design team?

The few remaining members of the original Beijing Enamel Factory crew are old and frail (张同禄, 霍铁辉) Qian Meihua and 金世权 are dead. The factory quit making beads in the late 1980s-early 1990s because the process is so labor intensive.

If anyone happens to be in Beijing, perhaps a phone call to 张同禄 or 霍铁辉 could ask this question?


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