My desire to recreate Viking beads has led me to spending hours looking at pictures of ancient beads online.
I should say these are NOT mine, they are some of the ones I’ve been oogling 
Most of the beads I see are not Viking at all but come from many different cultures, continents and ages.
Many of them are so beautiful that I am finding a growing excitement at the thought of trying to recreate them.
Greco Roman beads
One type that keeps cropping up are the Islamic folded beads – you can see this style in both of the above pictures. Typically they are stripes of coloured glass that are folded into each other creating interesting and intricate designs on the surface of the bead.
Many of the one’s I’ve seen are done using black and white and one other colour – red, green or tuquoise seeming to be popular.
At first I thought I could just melt these colours into a bead in stripes and then squash and fold the glass onto itself. It turns out that is not the way to do it, and the method is definitely not that easy!
I spent a good while looking online and came up with Jhan Knebel’s site - Jhan also has an interest in ancient beads and is persuing recreating them from glass. The link will take you her page about Islamic folded beads. She describes a couple of different ways that these beads could be constructed.
I decided to follow the instructions on her diagram, but got confused and came up with this -
Not an exactly inspiring little bead!
More thinking and more research brought me to this link, a page from Ornament magazine showing folded beads that Sage and Tom Holland are creating – along with a wonderful picture of the process. It is so true that a picture tells a thousands words!
Back to the torch, armed with more information -
Definitely still not what I’d call a beauty, but at least it’s starting to show a little promise!
I tried a few more and here are my results
I now understand better how these patterns are created when the glass is folded. I’d like to try and get the creases in the glass to be a little more apparent like they are in some of the real beads, although maybe this is just an artifact of their aging process, perhaps they did all start out smooth.
Have you tried recreating ancient beads? If so what styles and how successful were you? I’m really interested to hear from others who are doing this. These old beads are beautiful to look at but I am gaining a whole new level of appreciation for them and their creators, knowing that they did not have the knowledge and equipment we do today.
Awesome, these are so neat! To think you are bringing history alive with your bead making. I am so incredibly impressed (as always!). I can’t wait to see what you come up with next!
I find this all very interesting and like what you are doing with your recreations.
Thank you ladies! There are so many really incredible ancient beads out there, I feel like a kid in a candy box – hmmmm I’ll do this one! no this one! or maybe this one!
I hope to try a whole bunch of them without getting a sugar rush.
Does trying to recreate some of the beads I made when I first started out count as recreating ancient beads?
Great beads. I think you’ve got it. I took a class with Sage and Tom and it was the best. They showed 2 styles of folded beads. Tom also did a presentation on ancient beads. Barb
I thought the first bead was pretty good myself, but then I have no idea of even how to begin making beads. I had thought about making clay beads, but its too much and I’m not very patient. I do love the idea of you recreating history, think its awesome. Good luck in your future work.
Wanda
I also love ancient beads and jewellery, especially ancient Egyptian and Roman jewellery (and Elizabethan!) Your photos are super and a very interesting subject. I’ve added you to the list of Blogs I’m interested in following.
with kindest regards,
Shirley I.
Greetings,
There is an excellent article in a back issue of Ornament magazine, approx. 2006, about the research that glass bead master Tom Holland has done. The photos show the creation of a folded bead. The issue can probably be purchased through the Ornament Magazine website.
Best wishes,
Joyce
beadcollector.net
a discussion forum for collectible beads
Located the article on the Ornament site;
“Folded Glass Beads: An Islamic Innovation” by Tom and Sage Holland
vol. 29, #4, 2006
http://www.ornamentmagazine.com/current294.html
I love that you are trying to recreate the ancient beads. I don’t do much lampworking and I am not that good, but I do realize what a ton of skill it takes to make the layers of color and folds that you are working on. Do you think that perhaps when all is said and done that you might sand-blast or etch some of your beads to really make them look ancient? I would be interested to see how far you take this project. Thanks for sharing.
thanks Deborah, I etched some and like the way they look – I guess because all the old ones I’m seeing have a matte finish. I’m also considering trying baking powder when I make them to give them a more pitted look. It’s hard to know whether to make them look new or old!!
Thanks Joyce, I have to look into this more – I saw the pictures of the beads and I’m wondering if there’s actually a step-by-step in the issue.
Just found your site while searching for alink to the ornaments article.
I learned this technique from Tom and Sage Holland themselves, and at the time I wrote that article on my site, was still under an agreement from them to not publish their technique. I was thrilled when they published it.
I’ve never been big on making them look old. The finish on the bead is from too many yeasrs in the ground. The beads they made would have looked beautiful just like ours do today!
Hi Jhan, I was lucky enough to take a course with Tom this past summer and the highlight was watching him create this style of bead!