Islamic Glass Bead with Cane Eyes

My reproduction

Historic Bead from: Corning Museum of Glass
Origin: Islamic (possibly made in Syria)
Date: 799-1099
Measurements: Height 2.9cm, Diam 3.4cm

It is thought that the combination of cane pieces placed in the center of  trailing white lines is an another way of making an evil eye bead. Evil eye beads have been created by various cultures for thousands of years as protective amulets. Earlier evil eye beads were made by placed smaller dots on larger dots to form eyes (stratified glass eye beads).

The above information is from:  "Tracing Eye Beads Through Time" by Amy De Simone and Adrienne V. Gennett, published in The Flow, Spring 2013, p. 24-26

Historic Bead

Major Differences Between the Two

• My bead is 1 cm smaller than the historic bead in each direction (my bead measures approximately 2cm x 2cm). Scaling down my reproduction was a practical choice. I will not be able to anneal this bead right away, and larger beads are more likely to crack if not annealed. It also takes much more time & glass & fuel to build a larger bead.
• My mosaic eyes are slightly different, as they only have 12 rays instead of 20. To fit 20 rays on my cane would have required me to make a very large gather of glass when making my cane This may be something I work up to doing some day, but, it should also be noted that I am still using what amounts to an amateur level torch. Making a larger bead or a larger cane might be more practical if I had a professional grade torch, or if I was using a large furnace and working in a workshop with other artisans as they likely would have been doing in period.



Glass waiting to be pulled into a cane. The gather is attached to a hollow metal chopstick.

• I chose to make my cane eyes out of only red and white glass, and to make the turquoise dot in the center using stringer, rather than integrating a turquoise center into my cane eye.  I figured this is possibly what was done with the historic bead, because A) there is a dot of turquoise underneath each eye, and B) the turquoise dot on the center of each eye is off center, and does not appear to be off center in the same place on each eye.

Things to do Differently Next Time

• Try creating a cane with a turquoise center
• Try using a different turquoise glass. The one I used tends to go silver, muddying up the color, when it is heated for any length of time.
• I'd like to melt some of the elements into the bead a bit more, as some of them seem a bit more raised when compared to the historic bead.