TI Article

Color Photographs From a Tournaments Illuminated Article I Wrote

Glass Beads: Beginner's Theory and Practice

Issue 194, Second Quarter-2015

Click for a Pre-Print Copy of the Article

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Image 8 (also contains beads from images 5-7)

K&Q A&S

Link to Combined Documentation

K&Q A&S was a very good day. I finished in the top 6, and received a Golden Lyre in court for my entry!

I also had a lovely conversation with Clare (Isabel Chamberlaine) the next morning, where we looked at the feedback on the score sheet, discussed the winning entries, and figured what next steps I might take to improve what I am doing. Some thoughts include:

1. Showing process better: I was not sure how to do that for this project, because I had already largely figured out many of the bead making/decorating skills I used to complete this project. However, even though that process is one I already completed, showing it with my A&S entries has value. Others can see what my process was, and showing my mistakes/failures may be useful for newer bead makers. Remembering what my process was like may also help me better teach these skills to others. I plan to make very brief documents that explain how I learned each decoration technique used in the next A&S project I complete. I will also include some of my first attempts/less than perfect beads with my display. My next project is a recreated Anglo-Saxon necklace, so I can also show process and depth by including the Anglo-Saxon typology in a display with that necklace, and linking the two projects. Eventually, I should even create my own period appropriate necklace, using what I learned form the typology and from recreating several existing Anglo-Saxon necklaces.

2. Arrange some information in my documentation & also my display more visually: I will focus on doing this first for the document "Consideration for Reproducing Historic Beads," as this document also talks somewhat about my process. Clare suggested using tables. Perhaps I can include some of the beads discussed in this document physically in my A&S display. Any other physical items I can include might be good (stringers/twisties perhaps?)

3. Focus on experimental archeology: Make beads using a fire/kiln. Also focusing on using period tools and period bead release. This is already something I was planning to do, but I will focus on documenting that process and including some of that documentation with every A&S project I do. Hopefully I can also include some beads made with period techniques in my display, even if they are not part of my actual project. While I will likely never be able to complete a large project using a period heat source, there is a lot more I can do and show people in this area.

The idea of doing ALL THESE THINGS seems overwhelming, but I just need to remember that everything does not have to happen at once. I have my work for the next year or so all planned out!

Two Bead Making/Teaching Weekends

Uber Crafty at Stacy's House in North Jersey, Feb 7

Thoughts from teaching at "Uber Crafty"

1. Even if someone has made a bead once or twice before, it is likely a good idea to still go over the basics with them, especially having them go through the motions w/o fire first. I think that might have helped in one instance. One mistake that beginners often make is that they turn the mandrel the wrong way. Sometimes this can be difficult to correct, because they end up forming a habit pretty fast. A way to help fix this might be to ask the student to follow my voice instructions as I walk them through step by step the process of making a bead,  guide the student's hands, or take over the job of applying the glass, so the student can concentrate on winding the mandrel in the correct direction.

2. I find it really nice when other bead makers give me small tools or special kinds of glass to let me try something new. This has a very encouraging effect, and I'd like to see if this is something I can try doing. Perhaps I could let people play with some of my twisted stringers? That might be a nice thing to give out to let people who cannot make them yet have fun with them.

Making Beads at Valentina's House in Delaware, Feb 14

                                    Beads made on Feb 14th.

This beadmaking day was organized by Carowyn to make beads for a necklace that woudl be given to TRM's to use as a gift during their travels to other kingdoms. It was fun to work on a project with others! I'd love to do something like this again.

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.

Early Medieval Irish Glass Beads (& beads imported into Ireland)

Source: An Examination of Glass Beads from Early Medieval Ireland, by Margaret Mannion

Note: This picture is showing my own glass beads that I recreated using information found in the source referenced above. The goal of this project was for me to learn more about early period Irish beads, and to attempt to recreate these beads and understand the bead typology which was developed and created by the author of the above source (updated 10/20/15).

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.