I came across a picture of a beautiful Egyptian necklace on www.ancienttouch.com

Isn’t it beautiful!  Already sold, I knew the asking price would have been way beyond my budget anyway as it was dated circa 1bc – 4ad.  The materials listed were faience and carnelian.

I decided I’d like to try recreating this in glass!

I experimented with  the turquoise beads, trying to mimic the aged feel and look -

They turned out pretty well so I continued on and made more of them, then also made spacers in carnelianish colours.

Putting it all together was the hard part – assembling jewellery is not something I usually do – but – it came together rather nicely, here’s the finished piece!

I wonder what kind of Egyptian woman would have owned a necklace like this – it certainly has a way of making me feel very grand when it’s around my neck!

Hope you like it!

Well, not exactly, but I am pursuing a couple of leads on good Viking folks who are interested in purchasing these -

Many lampworkers may find the designs simplistic and might think these would be boring to make, but not so for me, I am having an exciting time learning what colours, patterns and shapes would have been made, or in circulation in Viking times.

After my last post I started doing some more digging around online.  The first thing I discovered is that Fustat beads are also known as Morfia or Morphia beads.

I’m finding the most wonderful resources!  One of which is AfricanTradeBeads.com – I was so excited to see all the detailed images of beads that they have online.  I sent an email off and heard back from David Nevill who very kindly said that I could use some on my blog.  This site has ancient beads of all kinds for sale and also has some wonderful reference charts.

Thank you so much David for letting me use these images!

It seems as though the red, yellow, green, yellow, red, white, green (or is it black?), white was a standard colour combination for these beads, sometimes the shades vary, or the thickness of the stripes but the order of colours stays fairly consistant.  Check out Africantradebeads.com wonderful reference page for LOTS more examples – I tell you, it has me drooling with excitement!

Looking at the ends of the beads and seeing the sizes listed leads me to estimate that the holes running through them are about 4-5mm.  That means I can use a larger mandrel when recreating these!

Here’s a picture of my latest beads – see if you can pick out the different styles, the Morfia beads, Warring States and Islamic Folded are all represented in this image -

Latest beads after etching the glass

I was thrilled with one of my first attempts -

Fustat/Morfia bead

I thought that the ‘green’ was actually black and created my twisted cane with that.

For my second attempt I used green in the cane -

Twisted cane for Morfia beads

Doesn’t look too bad eh?  EXCEPT if you work with glass you will know that green and yellow do not like each other very much.  They bleed into each other and that is what happened when I made beads with this cane.

You can see the smudging between the green and yellow.

For my next attempt I tried to use transparent green, and if you look closely at the most recent beads above you’ll see that the transparent green ended up being really transparent when the twisted cane was pulled.  So!  That still needs some refinement.

These historical beads typically have six or eight strips of cane around them.  Most of mine have more, perhaps I’m using thinner cane or perhaps I’m not flattening my cane out as much as it would have been.  I am also making a base bead and laying the cane on top of it, this is not the way the original beads would have been made.  I don’t have a grinder so am unable to grind the ends down, instead I shape them in the flame.

All in all, I think they are pretty fair representations of the original beads, they are certainly a LOT of fun and a challenge to make.  I have to be constantly aware of which twisted cane I am picking up – is it the right colour?  Is the twist running the right way?

I’ll be making more of these, even though they are time consuming, probably close to 30 minutes per bead, I think the end result is definitely worth it!

Have you got an ancient bead style that you’d like to see recreated?  I have a growing list of things I want to try – beads I never knew existed until I started searching around.  Another great resouce for bead styles is TheBeadDatabase.org — SO much to learn!  Not enough hours in the day!!

Just a quick post this morning to share the progress I am making with the ancient bead designs.

I think my folded beads are improving, I’m seeing more of the concentric designs that make the original ones so appealing.  Here also are the ‘Fustat’ beads I’m making and a Warring States style bead.

The Fustat style beads, are fun to make but definitely a challenge!  The true Fustat beads have 8 or 6 bands of twisted cane around them, my rounded attempts have 10 or more, so I need to work on that, but I am pleased with how they are looking.  Here is the original photo (taken from Ancient Beads World ) that I posted a few days ago, along with my latest version.

My version on the right

This one is closer to the original than my first attempts seen below -

I am starting to get more of a feel for placing the twisted cane and tucking in it’s ends at each end of the bead.

If you are recreating ancient beads, or have an interest in the subject I’d love to hear from you!

As always, I welcome any comments D

The more I look, the more I find!

I am struck by the intricacy of these beads from Fustat in Egypt.  This image is from Ancient Beads World a wonderful resource full of images of historical beads.

Fustat bead 9th-11th Century AD

I like the herringbone pattern that is created not by raking or combing the design but by laying lengths of twisted cane side by side.  If you look carefully you’ll notice that the stripes of colour do not line up as they would if the design was combed.

My first attempt, second from left in this image proved a very simple fact – you can’t use one length of twisted cane to do this!  My brain told me that if I took one length of cane and laid it in opposite directions that I’d get the zigzag effect – my brain was wrong!  In order to achieve the zig zag design two twisted canes are needed – each one spiraling in the opposite direction to the other.

Beads three and four were constructed in this way.

Ooooh but I love the colours in that original bead!!

Here I tried to replicate the twisted cane from the original bead, I haven’t got my proportions quite right, but you get the idea!

To create these beads I first made a base bead and then laid the twisted cane on it, end to end, alternating the canes to create the pattern.  The ends of the bead are difficult to shape nicely because of all of the  cane ends but I think with some practise, nicely rounded ends could be achieved!

I found a description HERE of how these beads would have been made originally, which states that there was no inner bead.  The stripes of twisted cane would have been laid side by side around the mandrel (or maybe no mandrel?) to create the bead.  The bead would have been finished by grinding, most likely to create the nicely shaped ends.  There is even a discription of the cane used in the bead pictured in the link, which apparently had a transparent green centre with this order of colours around it -

wide white, thin red, wide brown, thin red

Pretty interesting eh?

And don’t forget these beadmakers didn’t have a nice shiny torch, propane tank and oxygen ready at their fingertips – they were most likely using small furnaces or lamps – I’m not sure which at this location and time period, it would be interesting to know who used what and when.

It really is no wonder that glass beads were very highly prized possessions!

I’ve created quite a little pile of ancient styled beads now but have been finding myself torn between leaving them looking shiny and new or trying to give them a more aged appearance.

Here are some, bright and shiny from the kiln – these designs are typical of Viking age beads.

Trailed and Raked

I decided to try and ‘age’ some during the actual torching process -

Glass beads distressed during creation

I do like this effect very much, these have turned out looking pitted and slightly dull, much more like their real counterparts.

Here again, are some shiny beads, this time with black and white twisted or latticino glass decoration.

Beads before etching

See the difference when these beads have been etched?

Beads with twisted glass decorations

The beads have a softer look to them and no glare. I think it makes them look ‘older’.
One more picture – a pile of etched beads!

Etched mixture

So what do you think?

I like the etched and distressed look, I like the fact that it does give the appearance of age to the beads.  BUT I can understand that some people might prefer to see what ancient beads would have looked like back when they were first created, before they had lost their shine.

It’s also not my intent to mislead anyone into thinking these beads are older than they are, but something in my brain much prefers the aged look to the new ones.  It’s funny, but ancient beads are supposed to look OLD!!  To my mind at least – what about yours?

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!

Beads in progress – folded, foiled, murrini, raked, eyed, trailed.
I’m trying to decide whether I should etch the glass. The green melon bead already has an old patina that due to the method in which I made it.

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.

While I was searching for Viking bead information online I stumbled across an amazing chart!

I know, that doesn’t give you much of an idea of just how interesting it is, but click on that image and you’ll be taken to the version I found – you can zoom in to get a pretty good look at all the beads.  The chart is separated into continents and a time-line – I can see the Viking beads I was looking for and another of my favourites – Warring States beads from china.

A little more research and I discovered that this chart is from a book by Lois Sherr Dubin called The History of Beads – a bit more digging and way-ho!  I found there is a brand new edition that’s about to be released!  The original version went back to 30,000 BC, the new edition goes back all the way to 100,000BC!!

If you are interested in learning more here’s a review from The GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet – it’s one book that’ll be on my Christmas wish list for sure!

If you want to find out more or add it to  YOUR wish list click  here.