Recreating Ancient Beads – Warring States

Warring States beads are known as such because of the period and location that they originate from. Originally created in China circa 500BC – a time when regional warlords annexed smaller states around them and consolidated their rule.  This period eventually culminated in the beginning of the Qin Dynasty.

Here’s an example from Bristol Museum in England.  Isn’t it beautiful!

Warring States Bead

The glass used in these ancient beads varied from the soda lime glass that most beadmaker’s use today.  It was a lead-barium glass, there’s some speculation as to why barium was used – possibly to increase flux in the glass or possibly to create more opacity.

At the beginning of the Warring States period these beads would have been highly prized and have been found in tombs of high ranking individuals, but as time passed they became more common and more accessible to a larger part of society.  There is an interesting Wikepedia article about them here.

Not all of these beads were as complex as the one above, but they did all contain rings of concentric colours.

Some of them had a flat surface and some had raised rings of colour, these beads with raised ‘bumps’ are known as ‘horned’.

Here’s a link to Beadopedia with a rather nice picture of a horned bead

This type of bead is what caught my eye when first began lampworking.  I was intrigued by the precision of the dots and the alternating colours.

Here is a necklace I created based on this style of bead, I’ve taken artistic license with the colours.

Warring States Necklace

And this is what happens when you try and squeeze as many dots onto one bead as you can!

How many dots???

There are contemporary bead makers out there today who are creating much better examples than me, check out Larry Brickman’s site and look for beads by Tom Holland for not just Warring States beads but other beautiful recreations from ages past.

If you are recreating ancient beads, or have a knowledge of them I’d love to hear from you!