Vikings. Beads. Gifts.
Materials: COE 104 Lampworked glass beads, #10 crochet cotton, tiger tail beading wire, gold plated craft wire, nickel-free ear wires
"I evidently have never touched a torch before" - to Mistress Lissa
I was approached by Vicountess Sheva in late January asking if I would be willing to create lampworked beads for TRM East, Ioannes and Ro Honig, to give to Their Majesties of the West Kingdom, at Gulf Wars 2022. Honored doesn't even being to describe what I was feeling - and at what a fortunous time too - I had just found some really neat extent beads from Birka grave 981A that inspired me (photo to the right)! I put together a sketch of a plan to make a set each for the Royals, pulled out the appropriate colors to match their heraldries (black, red and white for Him, and yellow, blue and white for Her).
Unfortunately, I found could not control my dots to the level needed to do this many on a single bead to where I felt they they were worthy for Royalty, so I changed course to match other extent beads that were still able to be created in the colors of TRM's heraldries, as well as their Kingdom colors.
For Her Majesty of The West Kingdom, SCA
For Her Majesty, I created an apron bling strand of white, blue and yellow beads, with a pair of earrings to match. The center bead on her festoon was the only attempt of mash-mash dots that I was reasonably happy with.
My inspiration continued though. The more I looked at extent finds in Europe from 915-950AD, the more styles I wanted to try!
My initial thought was to do a solid color bead with solid color dots, like those seen in Her earrings, and towards the outer ends of the strand. As I continued, though, my proficiency began to return. Having seen the beads with the stripe under the dots, I tried those, and was pleased with the result! Finally, I was able to create the middle eye-bead, which is similar enough to that of Birka 981A that I just had to put it front and center!
For His Majesty of The West Kingdom, SCA
For His Majesty, I used his personal colors of white, black and red and created beads that I strung on a matched colored 3 strand finger-loop braid that I made.
I used some of the same types of beads that I had found to use in Her Majesty's strand, but I wanted to explore my capabilities more, while staying true to the historical nature of the piece.
I continued my exploration of thinner lines, like that of the center bead, and more layers included in the dots I was making, shown in the solid red and solid black beads. The black beads with the white and black dots were the first to come together properly, and made me "woo!" right out loud when they came out of the flame. THAT is the level of artistry I was looking for! THAT is something I feel comfortable creating for a King!
A closer look at both pieces, and some of the individual beads:
Lastly, during my journey reacquainting myself with my torch, and having been inspired by the finds that I discovered, I decided to create pieces of largess for Their Majesties to give to members of their populace. I used green and gold for the Kingdom colors, again echoing beads from the Dark-Ages Re-Creation Company. The wire is 20 gauge gold plated wire, twisted to echo pieces found in Birka graves 557 which showed multiple beads on the same dangle, and 570 being a single bead hung on a circle looped festoon.
As alluded to above, I felt like I was struggling to gain control of the glass when I first started this project. Though I had done the seahorse beads for Arabella last Autumn, they did not require a specific amount of glass applied to a bead, like these do. I was using full-sized rods (5-6mm), having only black and white in 2mm stringers. To regain the muscle memory needed for dots and decoration, I turned my torch up, and down, used different areas of the flame for both keeping the bead warm, and melting the rod or stringer for the decoration. I kept practicing control and sizing, making neat, even pairs, even without the first bead being in front of me. I absolutely fell back in love with this art, and will continue to experiment, create and build my proficiency to the very best of my ability.
The similarities:
* Glass was used for the extent finds
* The sizing of the beads was similar
* Finger-loop braiding was found all over Europe, in many time periods
The interpretation:
* I use a modern hot-head torch with MAPP gas to create my beads out of COE 104 glass
* I mixed and matched beads from different time periods or grave finds to assemble an aesthetically pleasing piece
* I used colors based on heraldry rather than finds
* I used pre-made wire for the festoons, and for stringing HRM's bead strand
* I have not seen any reports that detail beads being strung on finger-loop braids
#SCA #EastKingdom #WestKingdom #Largess #SilverBrooch #BroochesGottaBrooch #AandS #NewArt #Metal #Brooch #Lampwork #HotGlass #Birka #ArtAsService #ExtantFind #WireWrapping #GetTwisted #CailleachChiarain
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