Paste Rhinestone Page


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[Paste Rhinestone]
(Paste often called Strass after the man who perfected the cottage glass sets)
They were called "Paste" because they were made from pulverized rock crystal that was melted with alkaline salts and called paste. It was high in lead content and was colored with metallic oxides.

They were hand cut, (actually ground and polished) and hand set. They were the highest quality of quartz made up into sets. The finest paste requires no foil or backing of metal to enhance its brilliance. The lesser quality requires a metal foil or mercury or quicksilver backing. Because each stone was hand ground and polished which lead to uneven tables and facets each stone had to be mounted individually as a genuine gem would be. Most all of the very early paste sets were mounted in silver or gold.

[Black Dot Paste] Black dot paste was sets that had a spot of pitch on the cut flat bottom where the culet point was suppose to be. It was put there to simulate the old cut diamonds that you could see a dark spot in the center through the table.



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