Most Ancient Egyptian beads were made of
faience, a glass-composite glaze which was
introduced as early as the Pre-Dynastic period.
According to Egyptologists, such beads were
made on an axis, probably of thread, which
would burn up during firing, leaving a hole. Disc,
ring and tubular beads were made by coating the
axis with the unfired body-paste, rolling the
cylinder to an even diameter on a flat surface,
and then scoring it with a knife into sections of
the desired length. Other shapes, such as ball
beads, were rolled between the hands and
perforated while still wet with a stiff point such
as a wire needle. The beads were then dried,
coated with glaze (if the glaze had not already
been mixed with the paste), and fired. The firing
process often gave the beads a beautiful
translucent quality. The majority of faience beads
are blue or green in color, but black, red, yellow
and white ones were also produced, especially in
the New Egyptian Kingdom. In the art of Ancient
Egypt, we see lovely women adorned with such
jewels. To wear these beads today is to follow in
the royal tradition of Nefertiti, Tutankhamen and
Cleopatra.
- (FJ.4576)
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