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US 2003/0196325 A1Published application
Striped metal beads and method of making same
OwnerRonald Prattinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A jewelry bead has a rigid hollow body with an exterior wall of a first metal and a covering of a second metal whose color is different from that of the first metal. The covering overlies one or more selected areas of the wall so as to define an all-metal substantially level color pattern on the bead. A method of making the jewelry bead is also disclosed.
Claims20
A jewelry bead comprising
- a rigid hollow body having an exterior wall of a first metal, and
- an embodiment in selected areas of said wall of a second metal whose color is different from that of the first metal so as to define an all-metal, substantially level color pattern on the bead.
The bead defined in claim 3 wherein
- said bead has a pair of opposite poles, and
- said surface pattern is composed of a circumferential series of alternating first and second metal stripes, each stripe having opposite ends located adjacent to said pair of poles.
A method of making a jewelry bead comprising the steps of
- providing a rigid tube having an exterior wall of a first metal and a relatively large cross-sectional area;
- depositing a second metal on one or more selected areas of said wall;
- drawing down said tube so as to substantially reduce the diameter and wall thickness of said tube while elongated said tube thereby forming a drawn-down tube wherein the second metal is embedded into said selected areas of said wall;
- progressively deforming the drawn-down tube radially inward at selected locations along the length thereof;
- continuing the deformation until the drawn-down tube forms a protobead at an end of the drawn-down tube which is connected to the remainder of the drawn-down tube solely by a small diameter annular neck, and
- separating the protobead from the remainder of the drawn-down tube at said neck to form a hollow bead with a substantially level, all-metal color pattern on the bead.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.