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, most 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, coating 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.
- (FJ.2416)
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