Beads made as Tokens/Gifts for K&Q A&S

Laurel pendant given to my co-champion

Beads for TRM's

Judges Tokens

Largesse for Birka

Student Token

Broach made for my student Aibhilin

Necklace for Kelly

necklace made for my friend kelly in requested heraldic colors.

Tokens

Modern beads given out to be used as tokens for the SCA. Lots of fun with dots. Based off of modern beads I found while looking on places like etsy.

Anglo Saxon Sword/Amulet Beads

Below are large Anglo Saxon sword (and amulet) beads that I gave away at Mudthaw. These are all likely larger than a quarter (20-25 mm across). And even then they are smaller than the period examples. Below is some really quick research on sword beads, including links to where I got the info for the designs.

• In Anglo Saxon graves some large disc beads are found that are "distinguishable from the beads of normal size" found in graves. (Evison 2008)
• Female Gaves:(Evison 2008)
• "When found with other beads at the neck of a female grave, it is assumed that the function was the same as that of other beads, i.e. decoration with possible magical properties."
• "If found at the left hip in a container with other objects, it is possible that it was functional as a spindle whorl."
• Male Graves: (Evison 2008).When found "in connection with a sword it may  be regarded as a sword bead"
• "to be used with the 'peace strings' (note: what does this mean, is it like peace tying a sword at the Ren. faire?)
• "or perhaps it was believed to have healing properties"
• swords "occurred in only a small percentage of male graves"  -meaning the number of sword beads found in small
• The beads are most of, and first, made of glass ) but can also be made form other materials, such as amber, bone, crystal  (Evison 2008, Evison 1967)
• The beads are "almost always found at a distance of about six inches from the pommel, they almost always occur singly, and are never interlinked (Evison 1967).
• "The beads appear to be functionless as far as the working of the sword is concerned. But "a utilitarian purpose cannot be ruled out" as the beads were "found close to the sword-blade, a few inches below the grip." Because "this is the usual position for the attachment of a strap to the scabbard" it is possible "that a beads was sometimes used for the passage of a strap so that [the sword] could be drawn up tightly and firmly against the scabbard." Evison 1967).
• "May have magical significance in view of the fact that some of the materials of which they were made are knows to have been widely valued for their magical prop (Evison 1967).
• "it is not known precisely how these beads were attached to the sword." One bead was found "with a leather thong still attached and passing under the top of the scabbard. A metal scabbard mouth fitting is the obvious place for fixing it, and a number of such mounts are provided with a small buckle, projecting plate, or a perforated lug on the lower edge at the back....the fact that the perforation was on the lower side of the mount.... is in favor of it being intended for something suspended, such as a bead" (Evison 1967).

 The catalog at the end of Evison 1967 lists some of the following types of sword beads beads found in English graves:

• Green glass bead, diam 1 1/4 in.
• Very dark olive-green translucent glass disc bead, opaque yellow zigzag trail, diam 2.8cm.
• Amber disc, one with a diam. of 2.2 cm, another measuring 2.8 found in a different grave.
• Yellow glass bead (no measurements given)
• Cylindrical glass bead, with red, yellow and green reticella threads, diam 2.8cm
• Large glass bead, disc with zigzag trail in sunflower estrangement (no colors or measurements given)
• Bluish-green glass disk with red trails cable-fashion on circumfrence (no measurements given)
• Translucent mid-green glass disc, with white zigzag trails, diam 3.5 cm
• Black glass bead, one side flat, the other convex, white trails in five-petal shape, diam 4.3cm
• Oval black glass bead, light-blue crossing trails and red dots, diam 2.5cm

 Tillerman beads has a nice list of amulet and sword beads, with grave citations that they reproduce. I copied a bunch of their designs for the beads pictures above, using one or two designs from the source cited above.

This may be a resource to look into later to learn more about the social meaning of such things in Anglo-Saxon society: Meaney, A. (1981). Anglo-Saxon Amulets and Curing Stones, British Archaeological Reports, 96.




Sources: 
Evison 2008: https://www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/0%20Prelims.pdf 
Evison 1967: http://www.amazon.com/Dover-Ring-Sword-Other-Sword-Rings-Archaeologia/dp/0854310614 (Mostly from pages 2-4 of this long document, with a catalog list of sword beads on pages 81-84, and drawings of beads in figure 2-p. 105, figure 3-p. 106)

Viking Beads

Beads given to be part of a viking beaded necklace.

Silver Crescent Necklace

Like the necklace I made for Ysmay upon stepping down as Bhakail's A&S champion, this chain is based on a Roman chain, the design for which I learned at Pennsic during a class. A link to a museum photo of a Roman wire wrapped chain can be found here. 

Silver Wheel Award Medalion

Silver Wheel Award Medallion

Pictures of two projects

Tokens made for high table at this year's River Wars. There were a total of 12.

Pennsic (fencing field) dirt beads. Transparent dark green glass with opaque green frit rolled in Pennsic dirt.

Stamped Tokens for Marion & JP/Lylie

At Pennsic I learned (during a class taught by Mistress Tinker from the Mid.) how to stamp beads to make tokens. You can use modern leather stamps (which I did here), or make your own stamps using soapstone. This is a documentable thing. Tinker shared an article with the class. I have the citation at work, and will update this blog post shortly with the information.

Pictures of period examples can be found on the Corning Museum site under the technique filter "stamping" and object type "pendant". The items are labeled as being Roman, or being from the Eaststern Mediterranean/Syria. Dates range from 100-700 c.e., with many pendants falling in the middle of that time range. The pendants seem to be made from transparent glass, in colors such as very dark brown, yellow/brown, amber, and blue/green

The pictures stamped on the pendants vary. Some have one or more animals (such as a lion, tortoise, or birds). Some showed humans (full figures or just busts). Others had both human and animal figures. A few of the pendants featured identifiable Roman mythological figures, such as Medusa and the goddess Victory. However, other religious symbols were also present. A cross, a star and crescent, the chi-ro monogram, the symbol for alpha and omega, and a Greek inscription for "one god" could all be found on the pendants. Clearly, many of the images on these pendants had deep significance and meaning.

The tokens I made have symbolic meaning within the SCA, as I am using aspects of a person's or a groups heraldry.

My Tokens

Tokens for Marion 

 Tokens for JP& Lylie

Picture of the Individual Tokens for JP & Lylie

Gifts for their Excellencies Bhakail

On stepping down as baronial A&S champion I presented their Excellencies Bhakail with a few gifts as a token of my appreciation for being chosen their champion.

Above are 4 "Islamic" folded glass beads (in Bhakail colors) which I added to fibula I wire wrapped and sharpened myself. I like the folded bead design for these tokens, because I feel it looks like a flame, an item which is related to Bhakail's heraldry.

Above is a necklace I make for her Excellency. The chain is based on a Roman chain, the design for which I learned at Pennsic during a class (sadly can't find at the name of the instructor at the moment). Erica helped teach me how to do the actual wire wrapping. A link to a museum photo of a Roman wire wrapped chain can be found here. The glass beads were made by me, the small gold beads were store bought. The necklace is in Bhakail colors, with a Salamander focal bead.

Wine Charms

Wine glass and bottle charms made for the populace choice prize at Bhakail Yule. Red and Black are Bhakail colors. I think THIS was the video I used from YouTube to teach me how to make the charm itself. I totally bought the bottle of wine to match the tokens and Bhakail's colors.

Pennsic Dirt Bead

I was asked to make a bead with pennsic dirt by a friend, and so I read up on these types of beads online, and then I did. The first step was drying the dirt  out in the sun so I could crumble it into a powder and remove the organic material. After that, it was very much like making a frit bead. I got the bead hot and rolled it over the dirt, which stuck to the bead. However, these beads should really  be encased with clear glass to protect the dirt, unlike a normal frit bead, which does not need to be encased. The encasing also has the benefit of magnifying the pennsic dirt, and making the bead look nicer, in my opinion. Since there is only a very little bit of dirt on the bead, it should be stable, though as they are a bit fragile due to the inclusion of the dirt, annealing these beads in the future would be a good idea!

These types of beads can be purchased at Heart of Oak's Etsy Shop

Bead string for Ysmay

Bead string for Ysmay in the colors of her heraldry (blue, red and yellow).

I'm wondering if heraldic colors work well for viking inspired bead strings because of the need for contrast in making a heraldic device. Including both "metals" (yellow and white) and non metals ensures there will be both light and darker colors that contrast well.   I happen to think that these three colors work very well together, and as a result, this necklace was a pleasure for me to design and make.

The polychrome beads are based on period Scandinavian beads that I first made several months ago for a largesse gift.

http://elysabethunderhill.blogspot.com/2015/02/viking-glass-bead-tokens.html

You can see that I've used the leftmost first two beads from the above link. By changing only one of the three colors on each bead I was able to make them work with Ysmay's heraldic colors.

I tried to bring a bit of period "randomness" into an otherwise modern symmetrical stringing by alternating which color annular bead (yellow or red) is next to the blue melon bead.

Castle Bead

At K&Q's A&S someone asked if I would be able to make a castle bead for them, because we all need to have heraldic beads. I didn't know, so I tried!. Below is the bead I gave to the person who asked.

successful castle bead

In the interest of showing more of my process, below is my first draft attempt at making the castle bead. It looks mostly the same in overall shape, because the idea I had at the start seemed to work. Working off of the heraldry I was trying to imitate I made a cylinder bead, and then added glass onto the bottom and even more on to the top of the cylinder to make those parts stand out. I then squared the top with my parallel press because it seemed like it might look better and make the top stand out more (if i were to make a third bead I might try to make the whole beads square instead of just the top). Since I was not quite sure how to make the crenelations, I had to experiment with that a bit more. Could I indent the glass to make the crenelations, or would I have to add glass to make them. I hit on the idea of using large thick dots of glass, and I  put them at the corners (the bead was too small to make more crenelations than that). On my first attempt I was able to see that the idea would work, but needed to make a fresh bead because it was easier than trying to fix my draft after I figured out what I wanted to do.

castle bead, first try

Mudthaw Artisans Row & Peerage Token Project

Demonstrating for a new beadmaker

 So Mudthaw's Artisan Row happened!

Erica was lovely enough to stop by and ended up helping me quite a bit. She filled in when I was a bit late due to court, and when I needed to go get lunch. Demonstrating was a bit slow this time, due to overcrowding (i was in the very back), so i took some time to make tokens for Erica for her May-be event, and to teach/watch Erica make beads.

Erica wanted to learn how to make twisties, so I found myself teaching that skill for the first time. I took a few minutes before teaching her to make a few twisties myself so I could try to mentally break down the sequence of actions I use when making them, especially the timing of each action. She ended up doing a great job when she tried herself!  Teaching this skill has made me realize how much of the "timing" of this skill that I have internalized. To make a twistie you need to know how long to heat the glass, how long to wait after you pull it out of the fire before doing anything (waiting a little bit at this point is hugely important...if you don't wait, your twistie will end up too thin or uneven) and when to twist v.s. pull v.s wait a second for the glass to cool. I found myself talking to Erica as she was trying to make her first first twisty, guiding her through the timing, saying things like "wait," "twist," "pull," "twist faster," etc. Erica will need to practice to internalize this timing on her own, but hopefully going through this a few times with me will help her do that!

Erica Making a Bead

Mudthaw was also a very wonderful event because a good friend got her Laurel at the event. I was able to make tokens for her to give out to people who visited her during the day. It felt really wonderful to be able to participate in her ceremony in such a concrete way!

The design of the tokens was based on her heraldry. Because I was making 50 of them, I also tried to pick a design that would be easy to do! Seeing people wearing the tokens I made at the event was also cool!

Viking Glass Bead Tokens

Tokens for the Royal Gift Basket.

Phoenician Glass Bead Necklace

This necklace is composed of 10 store bought metal beads, and 19 glass beads.

It is heavily based on several Phoenician beads and necklaces I've found on museum websites, such as Corning's Glass Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the British Museum, or on Christie's auction website.

Inspiration Bead
Inspiration Face Bead

Inspiration Necklace 1
Inspiration Necklace 2
Inspiration Necklace 3
Inspiration Necklace 4

Note: Some of the museum websites indicate that the necklaces may have been recomposed at a later date, so it is not known if a necklace of this configuration would have been worn. One of the auction websites notes that their necklace contains modern metal beads, while another notes that the metal beads are several centuries newer than the glass beads on the necklace. However, while the necklace configuration may not be able to be documented, the glass beads themselves are easily documented using the first two links above.

Research Note on Face Beads
Face Beads started to be made in the 7th century BC, when according to Glenn Markoe in Phoenicians (p. 156-7), "demon masks, animals, and male and female heads began to appear. It's probably more correct to call these figures pendants, rather than beads, as Markoe notes that they were often found on necklaces as special talismans (perhaps these are another variant of "evil eye" beads, as are the stacked dots beads on the necklace above).  Markoe says that these beads were likely made at multiple workshops along the Phoenician coast, in areas such as Cyprus, the Egyptian Delta, and Carthage. The pendants started small (3cm) but later grew up to 8 cm in height. These beads traveled widely and have been found  throughout the Mediterranean, and in Russian and Europe

Markoe says that these beads were "rod formed," but I think the larger of these beads were more likely to have been core formed. Corning's Glass museum specifically notes that one of these beads was made using this technique. Core forming is a process where small dried balls of clay, dung, and straw were wrapped around a mandrel. The bead was made on that "core" and the core cleaned out once the bead cooled. This results in a hollow bead. It is also easier to make larger beads using core forming, as less glass is required due to the large core.

A previous post of mine on Phoenician beads which includes a reproduction of another variety of Phoenician face beads.

Viking Necklace

This necklace was made for a friend. She has a viking persona, so she needed a necklace.

My inspiration was the necklace that can be found at this link .

The original colors I wanted were coral and green, which would have more closely matched the necklace above, but the coral effetre 104 COE glass is problematic . It tends to turn grey unless treated a specific way in the flame, something called striking, which I can not do with the torch I have. So we added in yellow and orange instead of the coral, and things got much easier from there on.

This necklaces is mostly made from monochrome beads, just like the example I linked to above. I added in a few different types of polychrome bead designs, and those designs can be documented very easily using Johan Callmer's book "Trade Beads and Bead Trade in Scandinavia."

I tried to keep the organization of the beads on the necklace feeling somewhat random, just like the the viking necklace I used as inspiration. I did this by creating a variety of colors, and shapes in the beads, and also by stringing them onto the necklace in a random pattern.

There are approximately 180 beads in this necklace!

Making this necklace was a useful experience because I had the chance to practice making very simple beads, and it became much easier and faster for me to make these beads over time and after all this practice. I even learned  how to make more than one bead on a mandrel at a time.

Close up view of a few of the beads.

Beads broken out into piles by type

Final Necklace. Glass beads (made by me) with store bought amber beads and an amber Thor's hammer.

The necklace I used as inspiration was not all made from glass. In the future I might try to mix glass beads I make with store bought stone beads to more closely match what was done with some period necklaces.