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Mike's desire to create glass beads
based on archaeological finds was partly triggered by time spent in York
over the past year, which included several visits to the Yorkshire
Museum and Gardens which houses a collection of finds from excavations
in and around York itself.
Included in the collection at the
museum are a
number of glass beads, ranging from Roman and Celtic on through the
Viking era, and all of them of great interest to Mike. Further research
on many fronts, including the British Museum holdings and other museums
across the country gave Mike the impetus he needed to work on producing
glass beads with historic inspiration. The result is the 'Mancunium'
range of glass beads created for people who want to own a small piece of
history in the making.
Click on any image on this page
to be taken to the
Mancunium
website, for more information about these historic beads and the
research that inspired them.
A sampler of historic bead types
Mike's desire to create glass
beads based on archaeological finds was partly triggered by time spent
in York over the past year, which included several visits to the
Yorkshire Museum and Gardens which houses a collection of finds from
excavations in and around York itself. Included in the collection are a
number of glass beads, ranging from Roman and Celtic on through the
Viking era, and all of them of great interest to Mike. Further research
on many fronts, including the British Museum holdings and other museums
across the country gave Mike the impetus he needed to work on producing
glass beads with historic roots.
Much of the glass used today
would not be out of place in any glass beadmakers workshop from Roman or
Viking times. The same soft soda glass is still produced in Italy,
Germany and Britain for use by modern beadmakers .
'Melon' bead necklace with jasper
and silver
Molten glass, now achieved
through the use of modern torches rather than furnaces, is still wound
in its liquid state around a rod or mandrel which has been coated with a
clay release to prevent the glass from sticking to the rod. Various
techniques of combining layers of glass through placing dots of glass in
sequence to create something as simple as an 'eye' or as complex as a
series of raised mounds of alternating colours are still used today as
they were thousands of years ago. Other techniques of trailing thin
lines of molten glass or creating complex twisted canes of glass that
are then melted and applied are still in use today as are raking and
combing or grooving the glass while it is still pliable.
'Melon' beads
The result is the same now as
then, beads of a durable beauty. They are a common thread among
cultures, and wherever there are discoveries of treasures there are
glass beads. And now Mike is working to create his own versions of
these beads, which are as unique and individual to him and his style
as if he had worked them in antiquity. Each bead is created from
soft glass, annealed in a kiln and then carefully cleaned to produce
a bead that will be as close to the historic style as possible
without being an exact copy. He believes that beadmakers then as now
developed their own individual style of creating small works of art
in glass and now adds his to the family of beads and beadmakers in a
line that stretches back for thousands of years.
Altus statua? Nos mos ostendo vos
altus statua!
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