صندوق
A rectangular body with chamfered edges and defined corners. It reads as engineered rather than grown, and pairs exceptionally well with squared metal furniture.
- Standard sizes
- 9×11 · 11×13 · 13×15 mm
- Aspect ratio
- 1.20 : 1
- Production note
- Requires a larger blank. Recommended for statement pieces.
- Available in
- All nine amber varieties
- Minimum order
- 100 pieces per specification
Custom dimensions are routine. If the profile you need is not in the library we tool for it, proof it against a physical prototype, and archive it under your account so it is never produced for anyone else.
Amber weight, by diameter
Integrated from this profile’s own geometry at 1.08 g/cm³, beads only. Amber is traded by weight, so this is the figure that turns a specification into a price.
- 17G
- 8 mm · 33 beads
- 50G
- 8 mm · 99 beads
- 33G
- 10 mm · 33 beads
- 98G
- 10 mm · 99 beads
- 56G
- 12 mm · 33 beads
- 169G
- 12 mm · 99 beads
The one profile that is not turned
Every other shape in this range is a surface of revolution — the profile is drawn once and spun. The chest is not: it is a block with chamfered edges, and it is cut rather than turned. That difference runs through the whole process, from how the blank is selected to how the piece is held during finishing.
It also means the chest has an orientation. Four faces are equivalent and two are ends, so a strand has to be strung consistently or the run reads as scrambled. On a well-made chest strand all the faces line up down the length; on a poorly made one they wander, and that is the fastest way to judge one.
Flat faces and what they do with light
A curved bead returns a moving highlight; a flat face returns a plane of light that either catches or does not. A chest strand therefore flashes as it turns rather than glowing continuously, which is a genuinely different visual effect and the reason the profile has a following independent of fashion.
On transparent grades the flats also act as windows — you see further into the material through a flat face than through a curved one, because there is no lensing. For a buyer selling clarity, that is worth more than it sounds.
Where the edges limit us
Amber is 2.0–2.5 on the Mohs scale, which means a sharp arris will not survive daily handling. The chamfer on our chest profile is set to the point where the edge still reads as crisp and still exists in five years, and we will decline to cut it sharper rather than deliver something that looks worn within a season.
The profile is strongest in the Maghreb, Libya and among buyers who want a piece that looks made rather than manufactured.
How the profile scales
The chest works better as it gets larger. At 6 to 8 mm the chamfers occupy a large proportion of the face and the bead reads as a rounded block rather than a defined one; from 10 mm upward the faces are wide enough to behave as planes, and the profile becomes what it is meant to be. Below 8 mm we would generally recommend something else.
The nominal diameter refers to the width across the block. Because the profile is 1.2 times its width in height, a 12 mm chest is 14.4 mm tall — noticeably more substantial than a 12 mm round bead, and worth accounting for when a strand length is being planned against a bead count.
Questions about this profile
About 8 mm. Below that the chamfers occupy too much of the face and the bead reads as a rounded block rather than a defined one. From 10 mm upward the faces behave as planes.
About 14.4 mm, because the profile is 1.2 times its width. That is noticeably more substantial than a 12 mm round bead and it affects strand length at a given count.
Cut. It is the only profile in the range besides the hexagon that is not a surface of revolution, which changes the whole handling process.
Amber is 2.0–2.5 Mohs and a sharp arris will not survive daily handling. Our chamfer is set at the point where the edge still reads crisp after years.
Yes. Faces must line up down the strand; a run where they wander is the clearest sign of careless assembly.
Quote a chest programme.
Send a diameter, a bead count and a quantity. We reply within one business day with a specification and an indicative price.