The first beads were probably made not long after Adam and Eve were kicked out of Eden and Eve thought the animal skins they were wearing could do with some accessorising...it's possible...
The word bead comes from bede, a Middle English term which means prayer as in Rosary (from the Latin rosarium meaning rose garden) Beads. A traditional aid to prayer and devotion used by Christians it is called a rosary because the beads were made from crushed roses which were strung with strong, usually silk, thread.
In many modern and ancient languages the words for bead are very similar if not identical to the words for pearl, coral, jade or grain. For example, the Italian for pearl is perla, for bead it's perlina. The French for both pearl and bead is perle. The German term for coral is koralle, bead is korn. In Spanish the word for both bead and grain is grano. The Japanese character for bead is very similar to the character for jade.
We assume that the earliest beads were made with naturally found objects and used to adorn both the wearers and their surroundings. Items which could easily be pierced, such as dried berries, eggs, feathers and seeds or those with sea, sand or wind eroded holes such as stones and shells were strung together with rudimentary cord and used as jewellery. Among the earliest precious materials used to make beads were pearls, coral and jade.
Beads were also made from clay and animal products such as bone and horn which are still used today. Trees yielded a plentiful source of raw products such as bark, ebony, sandalwood, palm leaves. Natural stones such as rock crystal, agates and quartz and scarce precious metals or minerals such as silver and gold were also used as more efficient methods were discovered.
It is not known when the first glass beads were produced. Glass bead makers or lapidaries were highly respected for their skills in bead making. Two kinds of glass bead making are described below.
The ancient wound style, also known as lampwork, used a plain or coloured glass rod which was heated in a very hot flame until soft, then spun around a mandrel (thick metal wire). The still malleable base bead was then smoothed in a mould (marvering). Extra glass decoration was added at this stage and then left to anneal (cool and harden) after which the mandrel was removed. This method has changed little over time and is still used today by bead artisans around the world.
The more recent drawn method involved a glass blower forming a hole in molten glass at the end of a rod and pulling the glass to create a hollow tube. The cooled tube was then cut into smaller regular size lengths and tumbled to smooth the edges. This is a more efficient method of producing beads en masse such as seed and bugle beads.
In the Victorian and Edwardian eras, beadwork, the craft of making or decorating objects with beads, became very popular. There were two kinds of beadwork, woven which used a loom and sewn which required a needle and thread. Used to embellish embroidery on clothing and to make trinkets and keepsakes such as pin cushions, book covers and spectacle cases, it became a fashionable pursuit for ladies in Australia, Europe and America. Jewellery made from a strand of beads was not considered beadwork.
Crafts are cyclical in nature and history shows that as with all fashions, the popularity of both beadwork and jewellery making, rises and falls like a mexican wave, weaving in and out of cultures as time moves by. Happily, there is currently an upsurge in beading activity which we are all enjoying.
Next Article: Hooked on Findings
© 2007 C.B. Gowans |
