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ANGLO-SAXON GLASS BEADMAKERS
A NEW LOOK AT THE TOOLS, MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES
SUE HEASER
Painng of the necklace from Snape Grave 10. This is a reconstrucon of the neck-
lace showing the beads as they would have looked before deterioraon.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Dr Catherine Hills for her encouragement and help; Jo Caruth of Suolk Archaeology CIC for
advice and for providing access to the Eriswell beads and unpublished material from Eriswell. Dr Tim Pestell of Nor-
wich Castle Museum for all his help and for providing access to the beads in the collecons. Thomas Risom for illu-
minang discussions about furnaces. Dr David Neal for advice about Roman glass tesserae. Mike Poole of Tillerman
Beads who gave me my rst glass beadmaking lesson and for useful discussions on beadmakers techniques. Also
Alan Burchell for discussions about beadmaking and furnaces; Julie Kennard of Suolk Archaeological Service for her
help; Laura Pooley of Colchester Archaeological Trust for providing access to the West Clacton tesserae.
© Sue Heaser 2018
All illustraons and photographs are by the author unless otherwise credited.
Credits for permission for photography are given under each image.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
1. TOOLS OF THE BEADMAKERS
2. MATERIALS
3. BEADMAKING TECHNIQUES
4. BEAD DECORATING TECHNIQUES
5. ANNEALING
6. BEADMAKING WASTE
7. GLASS VESSEL WORKSHOPS VERSUS BEADMAKING ARTISANS
8. CONCLUSIONS
9. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
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ANGLO-SAXON GLASS BEADMAKERS
A NEW LOOK AT THE TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES
INTRODUCTION
Anglo-Saxon cemeteries provide us with large quanes of beauful colourful beads. There have been many studies
in the past aempng to create a reliable typology and dang framework for these nds. More recently there have
been studies on the chemical properes of the beads (Peake 2013) to trace the origins of the glass used.
For several years I have been studying the bead collecons held in museums and archaeological instuons in
England and have used my skills in hot glass beadmaking to invesgate how the beads would have been made. My
ndings suggest that to date very few aempts have been made to assess Anglo-Saxon beads using the skills of the
beadmaker and this paper aempts to begin to redress that situaon. My ndings show that the exisng literature
has many erroneous assumpons as to how the beads were made. This means that the terminology used to classify
beads is oen wrong.
WORKSHOP OR ITINERANT BEADMAKER?
The current percepon in many studies (e.g. Peake 2013; Brugmann 2004) is that workshops were responsible for
making beads in Anglo-Saxon Britain. Several types of bead are only found in Britain and not on the European
mainland which suggests that they were made by indigenous makers, parcularly in East Anglia where many of
these beads are found. Examples are Brugmann’s so-called “Trac Light” beads, annular twist beads and various
“Norfolk” beads . I would like to challenge the idea of beads only being made in an established bead workshop. I can
make 30 to 50 beads in a day, similar to Anglo-Saxon styles and using a few simple tools. I suggest that the beads
could have been made by a travelling arsan who would have carried his tools and materials with him. The amount
of glass needed for a necklace is small – about 50 gms for a 45cms necklace, depending on the bead size. Thomas
Risom (2013), working on the Viking beads from Ribe, Denmark, has shown that a small clay furnace for
beadmaking can be made in a day. This could have been used to make beads for a small community, then
abandoned when the beadmaker moved on. Hardly any trace of the furnace would remain aer weathering.
MODERN LAMPWORKING
Hot glass or “lampwork” beadmaking is pracsed
today by arsans around the world using
techniques that go back to ancient mes. The term
“lampwork” refers to the small heat source
(originally an oil lamp) that is used to melt the glass
to make beads one at a me on a mandrel.
Modern beadmakers use gas blowtorches but
otherwise the basic techniques have changed lile
since Anglo-Saxon mes. These are the skills I have
used to achieve an understanding of the
techniques of the Anglo-Saxon beadmakers.
A replica Anglo-Saxon bead being made with a modern mandrel
and blowtorch by Mike Poole of Tillerman Beads.
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1. THE BEADMAKERS MANDREL
The mandrel is the main tool of the glass beadmaker and is used for all wound beads which make up the majority of
Anglo-Saxon beads. It is a simple iron spike, about 30cms long tapering from about 8mm to 1.5mm at the p. It
would have to be made of metal and most likely of iron because any other materials would not withstand the
temperatures required to melt glass.
I have not found any reference in reports idenfying mandrels in excavaons in Britain but this is possibly because
excavators are unaware of these objects. Also, a mandrel is such a simple thin piece of iron, they have either
corroded completely or if traces are found, they are not recognised for what they were. The illustraons below
show the suggested shape for a typical mandrel. A beadmaker may have had several so that beads could be made
one aer the other without the need to remove the bead from the mandrel each me. The p is the important part
and beads would normally have only been made in the last 10 cms of the point with the rest of the mandrel used as
a handle to keep the hands away from the ame. The shape shown mirrors the internal measurement of the holes
of typical beads from Anglo-Saxon cemeteries although some have larger holes of about 5 to 10mm or more such as
the common annular blue beads and larger beads such as annular twists.
Mandrels may have been set into wooden handles
in the same way as awls and therefore could show a
square secon at the handle end. Another possible
shape is with a hollow end like a ferrule to aach a
wooden handle. However, my experiments show
that a thicker handle is more dicult to control
when winding a bead so it seems likely that they did
not have wooden handles. The heat of the ame
does not travel very far down the mandrel so a
wooden handle is not necessary for avoiding heat.
Possible mandrels: Taershall Thorpe hoard;
Hyderabad Barracks, Colchester; Swallowclie
Down bed burial; Theord. Detail of the p of the mandrel. The mandrel was made using
tradional blacksmithing.
The last 10 cms of the point
tapers from 4-5mm to 1.5mm
at the p.
This end forms the handle and
would normally be about
8mm diameter.
Reconstructed iron mandrel
1. TOOLS OF THE BEADMAKERS
The following tools are all that are needed to create Anglo-Saxon beads. Not all are essenal and simple beads can
be made with just a few mandrels, a knife for shaping, and a furnace.
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3. TWEEZERS
These are used to make long thin “stringers” of coloured glass for decorang
beads with coloured trails (see page 11). Quite delicate tweezers are required,
ideally 16cms long or less and with ne tapered points. They could be bronze
or iron. The at-ended tweezers found in Anglo-Saxon graves could be used
too but pointed ends are more useful to a glass beadmaker.
Examples: Flixborough—alloy tweezers
Iron tongs Wooden tongs
A rectangular bead being
shaped with mashers
4. MASHERS OR TONGS
Mashers are used by modern glass beadmakers for shaping beads and especially for disc
beads, square beads and rectangular beads. They are a pair of small tongs with wide aened
ends. A simple at surface could be used instead with a at blade to press the bead down with
(see Marver overleaf).
Spiral disc beads and rectangular “Trac Light” beads (see right) would be easier to shape
using some form of mashers rather than simply pressing them down on a at surface. Iron
tongs are found in Anglo-Saxon sites and a small pair of these would have been suitable. Also
likely are wooden tongs of the type shown below. They would need to be soaked in water
before use to prevent them burning.
There is no need for strength in these tools—they are simply for shaping small pieces of hot
glass. The best size for bead-shaping is about 18-20cms long.
Spiral bead (top) and
bead with twisted
trail from Eriswell.
(Courtesy of Suolk
Archaeology CIC)
5. SHEARS
These would be used to cut hot glass when making rods or wrapping beads. They
would have been relavely small and light like those found as weaving tools—about
15 cms long is ideal.
Examples: Flixborough; Taershall Thorpe; Harford Farm; Theord.
2. PONTIL
This is a simple iron rod used by glass-workers to plunge into a crucible of molten glass to remove a “gather” of
glass for working. Ponls are also used as handles where they are aached to glass being worked in the ame.
Beadmakers would also use ponls for melng tesserae. A ponl for beadmaking would be similar in size and
shape to a mandrel but would need less of a point. Mandrels may well have doubled for this task.
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6. MARVER
A marver is a at surface used to shape beads. It could be a knife, a chisel or any at piece of iron. Wood could be
used if it was weed rst.
The term “marvered” is frequently used wrongly in archaeological reports to describe polychrome beads that have
applied decoraon ush with the surface. Applied decoraon on polychrome beads can be smoothed into the
surface by simply heang the bead in the ame. The added trails and dots will sink into the surface completely
without the use of any smoothing tool. Any bead that is spherical in shape has not been marvered, it is the natural
shape resulng from heang a blob of glass while the mandrel is constantly rotated to prevent the glass slumping.
A marver is used mainly to shape beads that are not spherical. Glass will always return to a rounded shape when
heated so a marver is used to form any shape with a at surface such as a cylinder, bicone, square or rectangle.
A chisel being used as a marver. A cylinder bead is shown being
rolled on the at surface to shape it.
A modern marver with the paddle end made
from graphite. Metal or wood can also be
used.
7. FURNACE
A heat source was required to melt the glass. To date no bead
furnaces have been idened in excavaons in the United
Kingdom. The remains of beadmaking furnaces have been found
at Viking sites in Scandinavia. Thomas Risom, working at Ribe,
has shown that a small furnace of about 22cms diameter and
45cms high can produce high enough temperatures to make
beads. The drawing shows a furnace that Risom has used in his
experiments (Risom, 2013). So glass melts at a temperature of
around 900°C and a simple furnace of this kind with an opening
at the top is capable of this temperature when used with wood
as fuel. The furnace causes a natural dra and bellows or blow-
pipe are not required.
Risom has also experimented with similar furnaces using bellows and
charcoal and discovered that this causes vitricaon of the inside of
the furnace. All the furnaces found at Ribe that had been used for beadmaking had no vitricaon so Risom
suggests that this simple furnace without an added air source was what the beadmakers used.
A small furnace like the one shown would appear the same as any small hearth in an excavaon because the top
would soon weather away leaving only the re surface. Flat disc-shaped stones with a central hole have also been
found at Ribe and Risom suggests that these could have been used on the top of the furnace to direct the heat
more intensely. Another possibility is that they were used to plug the boom re hole aer lighng so as to
increase the dra.
Sketch of a “Volcano-furnace”
aer Thomas Risom, 2013
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2. MATERIALS
GLASS
The main requirement was glass and analysis of glass from Anglo-Saxon cemetery beads has shown that beads
were made using several kinds (Peake 2013) including Roman glass and glass imported from the Middle East. There
is no evidence that glass was made in Britain – but a lot of glass was imported into Europe during the Roman peri-
od from the Near East and it is suggested that this connued to some extent during Anglo-Saxon mes.
Making coloured glass from raw glass would be beyond the capabilies of an inerant beadmaker. The furnace
described above would not supply sucient heat. Beadmaking skills require manual dexterity but not high temper-
ature furnace skills and in the same way as beadmakers working today, it is likely that the Anglo-Saxon beadmakers
acquired their glass ready-coloured.
Types of Glass
The Anglo-Saxons made beauful vessels as well as beads. But while the glass used for vessels is usually transpar-
ent and in subtle shades, the glass used for beads is mainly opaque and in brilliant colours. This shows that bead-
makers sought a dierent colour range of glass for their work.
Excavaons at Ribe, Ahus and other Scandinavian sites as well as Dorestad in the Netherlands have produced large
quanes of tesserae in a rainbow of dierent colours that have been shown to have been used for bead making
(Risom 2013, Callmer & Henderson 1991). Very few glass tesserae have been found in Britain even from Roman
excavaons and Romano-Brish mosaics are normally made from stone tesserae. But glass tesserae would have
been a very convenient way to trade and transport coloured glass in small quanes for beadmaking. West Clacton
Reservoir has produced about 200 opaque coloured glass tesserae from an isolated ditch (Paynter & Kearns 2011)
and it is likely that this could have been a travelling Anglo-Saxon beadmaker’s materials and not of Roman date.
David Neal (pers. comm) considers that these glass tesserae are unlikely to be a Roman mosaicist’s stock due to the
rarity of glass used in Romano-Brish mosaics.
Roman and Byzanne glass tesserae were made in all the colours that appear in Anglo-Saxon beads. James Peake
notes that there have been few nds of glass tesserae in Britain so that beadmaking using them was unlikely
(Peake 2013). But there have been virtually no nds of other types of glass cullet or raw materials in Anglo-Saxon
sites either and none in bead colours. The colour match between Roman and Byzanne tesserae and Anglo-Saxon
beads seems too close to ignore. There appear to be no other objects made with these colours of glass. Enamelling
has some similaries but the quanes required for enamelling are very small compared to beadmaking.
Tesserae can be used with ease to create beads. No crucible is needed for melng glass inside a furnace and the
beadmaker has only to pre-heat a tessera slightly before holding it in the ame to melt it and then wind it round a
mandrel to make a bead. Stringers and twises are also easily made from tesserae for decorang beads with trails
and dots.
1. Tesserae
Tesserae from West Clacton—in many of the most common bead colours. By permission of Colchester Archaeological Trust.
8
2. Waste glass or cullet
Roman scrap glass has turned up occasionally in Anglo-Saxon excavaons (West Stow; ) and was another source of
material for the beadmaker. Somemes a piece of broken Roman glass from a vessel has been found in a woman’s
grave, oen contained in a bag or box to suggest it was treasured. Perhaps the woman had been waing for the
next visit of the glass beadmaker? However, most Roman cullet is transparent glass and transparent beads are in
the minority. The later doughnut beads have been shown to have been made with Roman glass.
3. Glass cakes
The West Clacton nds contained the remains of two glass cakes.
These are large discs of glass, about 25mm thick and about 16cms
diameter, which were the products of glass making workshops and
probably from the Mediterranean or Near East (Paynter et al. 2011).
They are usually cut into scks of glass and then tesserae but would
be equally useful for cung small pieces for melng to make beads.
BEAD RESIST
Hot glass will sck rmly to metal so modern beadmakers dip their
mandrels in a clay slip to aid removal aer the bead is made. Clay
has been found inside bead holes at Ribe and it is reasonable to
assume that the Anglo-Saxon beadmaker used a similar resist. The
beads below show possible resist in the hole. This could be soil ac-
cumulaon although these examples are well adhered and look like
resist. The photograph (right) shows replica mandrels that have
been dipped into modern bead resist and allowed to dry. Aer the
beads are made the mandrels are soaked in water to soen the
clay and the beads twisted from the mandrel. The resist is then
cleaned from the bead holes with a small le, or by pulling wet
string through the hole. Residue oen remains.
Parts of a glass cake from West Clacton
by permission of Colchester Archaeological Trust
Bead from Langton Quarry—showing possible rem-
nants of bead resist. Photo credit: Archaeological
Research Services; Langton Quarry report. 2009
Two beads from Eriswell showing possible bead resist. Courtesy of
Suolk Archaeology CIC.
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3. BEADMAKING TECHNIQUES
I have experimented making replicas of Anglo-Saxon beads using the above tools and materials but replacing a fur-
nace with a modern blow-torch for convenience. My beads look remarkably like the ancient beads and I have been
able to work out how many are made.
The following is a brief overview of the most common techniques.
MAKING A BASIC ROUND BEAD
Various studies on Anglo-Saxon beads have suggested that scrap glass or broken cullet is melted in a crucible placed
inside the furnace and a glob of glass (or a “gather”) is scooped up on the end of an iron rod (a ponl) and wound
round the mandrel. This is only one possible way and there are two others:
Step 1
The glass tesserae are warmed by
placing them close to the furnace
heat. This is so that they will not
crack when held in the ame.
Next, a ponl (or spare mandrel) is
heated unl red hot and pressed
onto a tessera which will sck to
the hot metal.
Step 2
The tessera is heated fully in the
ame unl it starts to melt and
glows pale orange. It is then rotat-
ed to heat all the glass evenly.
Meanwhile a mandrel is heated
unl the end is red hot.
Step 3
The red hot glass is touched
against the mandrel, about 3-4
cms from the p. It will sck to
the hot metal which is rotated
while the molten glass winds onto
it. This takes skill to keep the glass
at the right temperature.
Step 4
When the bead is the right size, the ponl holding the molten glass is
pulled away. The bead is rotated connually in the ame unl it becomes
perfectly round. This is the point at which decoraon can be applied. Oth-
erwise, the bead is cooled slowly by pulling it gradually out of the ame. It
will then be removed from the mandrel immediately or allowed to cool on
the mandrel before removing. In either case, it will need to be cooled very
slowly to prevent cracking (see Annealing on page 11).
1. Using a Tessera:
10
2. Using a glass rod:
This is the technique used today but there are many examples of glass
rods found in Merovingian and Viking sites to suggest that that bead-
makers in the rst millennium CE knew the technique. Glass rods are
usually about 5 – 10mm thick and 30cm long is a good working length.
They can be made from a gather of molten glass taken from a crucible
by dipping the end of a ponl into it. With the glass sll molten, a small
part is grasped with tongs and pulled into a rod which cools and solidi-
es as it is pulled. Using the melted end of a glass rod to create a bead
on a mandrel gives more control than using a gather of molten glass
scooped onto a ponl.
The glass rod is warmed in the ame, then heated to pale orange hot.
The melted end is pressed onto a heated mandrel which is rotated as
the hot molten glass is wound onto it. Only the end of the glass rod is heated to liquid point so that the rest of the
rod remains cool and rigid. This is used as a handle by the beadmaker to control the hot glass at the other end as it
is applied to the mandrel.
OTHER BEAD SHAPES
ANNULAR BEADS
These are made in exactly the same way as round beads using a larger diame-
ter mandrel. Several beads can be made on one mandrel. Starng about 15
cms from the mandrel point, a bead is wound, then heated to smooth and
then cooled slightly. The next bead is wound about 2 cms from the rst and so
on. It is important not to let the earlier beads into the ame again or they will
shaer. The gap between adjacent beads is therefore important.
These are made by wrapping the glass over a longer length of the mandrel. The bead is heated to smooth out the
wrap. Finally the bead can be rolled on a at surface (marvered) to smooth the cylinder sides. The ends of the
beads can be marvered as well to aen them if required.
Many other shapes can be made with the simple tools: cubes, melons, rectangular, spiral, bicone, constricted
and doughnuts. I will cover these in detail in my forthcoming book.
CYLINDER BEADS
11
Glass stringers made by the author and
showing the imprint of tweezers at the
ends. The stringers need to be about 1mm
thick or less for ne lines. These are then
applied to the hot glass bead and melted
in. If they are made any thicker, the glass
spreads and the delicate line becomes too
thick. Stringers are very fragile and a
beadmaker would have needed to make his
own because they could not survive
transporng or imporng. They can be
made from tesserae or small scraps of glass
or even failed beads.
Using tweezers to pull a
stringer of hot glass.
Gather of hot glass on
a ponl
4. BEAD DECORATING TECHNIQUES
Monochrome Anglo-Saxon beads are relavely easy to make. I have managed to re-create most of the common
types with only a few hours of pracce. The decoraon is more challenging but sll not within the capabilies of a
fairly novice beadmaker. However, I have the advantage of a gas blow-torch with predictable temperatures.
Most polychrome beads are decorated with lines (or trails) and spots and here is a brief overview of the main
techniques. It has been suggested that monochrome beads could have been made elsewhere and then decorated
at a later date but this is unlikely as there is no advantage gained. Reheang a bead to melng point oen causes it
to crack while decorang skills are not much more dicult than making beads.
STRINGERS
These are thin spaghe-like lengths of glass that are a stock-in-trade for all glass beadmakers. I have not yet seen
them menoned in a report on Anglo-Saxon beads. They are relavely simple to make and a beadmaker will make
a selecon in dierent colours for decorang beads.
First a small piece of glass is melted on the end of a ponl. Tweezers are used to grab a small piece of molten glass
and the whole is removed from the ame. Then the tweezers are pulled away from the glass melt to make a long
thin strand about 1 or 2mm thick. The glass sens as it cools and the end of the pull results in a straight length.
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LINES OR TRAILS
Once the basic bead has been made, it is kept hot just out of the ame and
allowed to cool a lile so it is not too so. The mandrel is connually rotated
to stop it sagging. A stringer of a contrasng colour is heated and then used
to draw a line onto the bead. Waving trails such as the one shown are com-
mon designs or it could be a simple stripe, or crossing lines which involve go-
ing round the bead twice. As with the rod, only the p of the stringer is heat-
ed so that the rest is used as a rigid handle.
When the design is nished, the bead is rotated in the ame so that the
added glass sinks in ush with the surface. Note that no marvering is nec-
essary to achieve a smooth nish—just heat.
Somemes the lines are not heated into the surface to give an embossed
eect. This could also be accidental—the furnace possibly cooling down
before the lines can be melted in. Thicker stringers will give thicker lines.
DOTS
This is another frequently used mof on Anglo-Saxon beads. Again a stringer
is used, the p heated and then pressed onto the bead. The whole is moved
nearer the ame and the stringer pulled away so that the glass separates in
the heat leaving a raised dot.
Once the dots are nished, they can be heated into the surface, or le
proud. Larger dots are made with glass rods instead of stringers.
DECORATING BEADS WITH STRINGERS
Bergh Apton green stripes Morningthorpe dot and trail Great Chesterford dots
EXAMPLES OF BEADS DECORATED WITH STRINGERS
13
TWISTED STRINGERS
These are frequently used in Anglo-Saxon beads to provide twisted trails. The stringers have to be made rst and
then cooled into scks of glass. The technique shown here uses two dierent coloured tesserae or pieces of glass.
Glass rods could also be used. Opaque yellow and transparent dark green are the usual colours.
Step 1
The tesserae are pre-heated and then a red hot iron
rod is pressed onto the yellow tesserae. This is heated
in the ame unl it become slightly molten when it is
pressed onto the pre-heated green tessera.
Step 2
The two tesserae are heated further unl they begin
to melt and become one gather of glass in two sepa-
rate colours. Then a second red-hot rod is pressed
into the gather to make a second handle for twisng.
Step 3
The glass connues to be heated unl it is evenly
glowing all through. It is then removed from the heat
and aer cooling slightly, each rod is rapidly turned in
an opposite direcon while the rods are pulled gently
apart. This makes a thin twisted stringer.
Twisted stringers should be about 2mm thick for the
results seen on Anglo-Saxon beads.
MAKING BEADS WITH TWISTED TRAILS
These disncve beads are considered indigenous to Britain and are not found on the Connent. Brugmann calls
them “Trac Light” beads but this is not an ideal name and it covers too many dierent designs, both round and
cylindrical in her typology (Brugmann 2004). The disncve yellow/green twisted trail is found on black cubic beads
as well. Perhaps “TWYG” bead could be a shorter basic term referring to the coloured twisted trail and standing for
“Twisted yellow green”. This gives the opportunity to further categorise: Red cylinder TWYG; Black cuboid TWYG,
Red rectangular TWYG etc. Other colours of twist are found but much less frequently.
Step 1
A red cylinder bead is made. The bead
is kept in the ame and a twisted
stringer is wrapped round the bead.
Step 2
The bead is rotated in the heat so
that the twisted trail sinks ush with
the bead surface.
Step 3
Finally the bead is rolled on a marver
to correct the cylinder shape and
make it sharper.
14
5. ANNEALING
Beads have to be cooled slowly to avoid cracking aer they have been made and this process is called “Annealing”.
Coecient of Expansion (COE)
Modern glass is given a coecient of expansion rang such as COE 90 or COE 104. This is to ensure that glass-
workers only use compable glass in one piece. Ancient glassmakers were probably unaware of this but we can see
traces of the problems they had as a result in some beads.
The Annealing Process
When the bead has lost its red hot glow, the mandrel, with the bead sll on it, can be plunged into hot sand or ash-
es to cool down slowly. Alternavely the bead can be knocked from the mandrel immediately aer it has lost its
glow which is at a point when the iron has contracted more than the glass. Beads can then be placed inside a pot
and buried in hot ashes to cool down slowly.
Modern beadmakers anneal their beads by placing them in a kiln and heang them to 500C and then allowing them
to cool slowly over a few hours.
Problems with annealing
If beads are not annealed and cooled too fast, applied decoraon can
fracture and fall away. White beads from Bergh Apton and several oth-
er East Anglian sites exemplify this. They show a groove where the
waving trail has fallen out, due to either poor annealing or incompa-
ble glass types, or possibly both. The missing glass is probably blue as
beads of this design are found without deterioraon. These beads
could be the work of a single beadmaker or even one batch of beads.
This gives the possibility of studying the work of a single arsan and
the distribuon their work. Examples are : Bergh Apton Grave 56; Er-
iswell Grave 195; Hadleigh Road; Icklesham; Dover Buckland Grave 42;
Morningthorpe Grave 288, Mucking Graves 845, 924B.
Comparisons of the chemical composion of these beads from Bergh Apton and Eriswell from James Peake’s analy-
sis (Peake 2013) show they are of the same type of glass: Saxon II (natron).
When beads are annealed at too high a temperature, they can melt
slightly and if they are lying adjacent to each other, they can became
joined. The example shown is a double bead from Eriswell Grave 353.
Beads like this are somemes assumed to have been made next to
each other on the same mandrel but this would be very dicult to
achieve if the beads are decorated with trails close to the join like the
one shown.
Some beads that have been classied as “Hourglass” could have been
a result of over-hot annealing rather than a deliberate aempt to
make double or triple beads.
Beads from Bergh Apton showing a lost col-
oured trail between the red dots. Courtesy of
Norwich Castle Museum.
Bead from Eriswell Grave 353. Courtesy of
Suolk Archaeology CIC.
15
6. BEADMAKING WASTE
Beadmaking waste has been found in Scandinavia and
several sites in mainland Europe but not so far in Britain.
If Anglo-Saxon beadmakers were solo inerant arsans,
this may explain the lack because the amount of waste
that results from beadmaking is small. The photograph
(right) shows my own waste from making a few hundred
beads. All of this can be recycled as well so it is hardly sur-
prising that no traces of this work have been found. The
collecon shows failed beads, ends of glass stringers and
rods, as well as droplets of glass that fractured from a rod
being heated too quickly.
Glass materials for making TWYG beads: yellow and
green twisted stringers and a red glass rod next to
replica beads.
Glass rods that are now too short to use. They will be
recycled by melng the ends and pressing two of the
same colour together. Or they can be cut into short
lengths and melted like tesserae.
Modern glass tesserae with replica stringers pulled
from them next to replica beads made from the
tesserae.
Pulled rods made by the author to produce striped
decoraon on beads. These are within the
capabilies of a relavely novice beadmaker.
16
7. GLASS VESSEL-MAKING VERSUS BEADMAKING
The skills, tools and materials required for these two cras are very dierent. Therefore the two types of arsan
would be unlikely to share a workshop. The dierences are summarised as follows:
• Making glass vessels requires handling larger quanes of glass and therefore larger and hoer furnaces
with melng tanks or large crucibles.
• The glass colours used in vessels are mostly dierent to beads. Nearly all are transparent glass and in more
subtle colours such as amber, light blues, olive green and pale green.
• Scrap vessel glass (cullet) is usually found in considerable quanes where vessels were made in Saxon and
Roman periods to supply the requirements (Glastonbury, London). This was not used for beadmaking.
• The tools are dierent. Beadmaking requires small, light tools and mandrels. Vessel-making requires heavier
tools and blow-pipes.
• Thomas Risom (2013) has shown that beadmaking furnaces can be small and used at a lower temperature to
furnaces used for vessels. They were probably red with wood and did not need bellows.
• Vessel-making requires assistance for the glass-blower. A beadmaker can operate singly-handed or with
some un-skilled help stoking the small furnace.
• Beadmaking waste would have been very small and mostly recycled immediately. Materials could have been
glass tesserae or small cakes of glass as well as coloured glass scrap.
8. CONCLUSIONS
My aim in this paper is to demonstrate the process of glass beadmaking as probably used in Anglo-Saxon and
earlier mes. I feel there has been a lack of understanding of the processes in the past by archaeologists and this is
reected in many reports where erroneous assumpons are somemes made and then perpetuated in the
literature. I hope that this paper will help to improve accuracy of bead terminology and descripon.
The evidence of glass beadmaking from Anglo-Saxon excavaons is almost non-existent and this is most likely due
to the ephemeral nature of the glass beadmaker’s cra. Tools are simple and not unique and waste would be
largely recycled. Also, as I have demonstrated, beadmaking was likely to have been the pracce of individual
inerant arsans and not larger workshops.
Further study on the analysis of glass to aempt to associate parcular styles of bead with a single maker could
make it possible to idenfy the work of individuals. Aer studying hundreds of beads from Anglo-Saxon sites I am
beginning to idenfy details that could suggest individual makers and I plan to invesgate this further. I am also
studying the arrangement of beads in single strings to create painted reconstrucons and idenfy taste and design
choices of the women.
More recent reports on Anglo-Saxon cemeteries have somemes only shown the beads photographed from one
angle, looking down on one of the pierced sides. This is a real problem for analysing decoraon and shape,
parcularly if the beads are now inaccessible or lost. Two views are essenal , parcularly of the side of the bead
visible when it is worn, and I do hope this will return to being the norm in the future, whether it is drawings or
photographs of beads.
Sue Heaser
Suolk 2018
17
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sue Heaser is a writer and illustrator and has published many non-con books on jewellery making and other
cras. She studied Art at the Sadat School of Art in Beirut, and at Falmouth School of Art, UK. A degree in
Geography and Archaeology followed at Exeter University. She rst worked as a Finds Assistant for the Museum of
London and then as an Archaeological Illustrator for the (then) Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments, drawing nds
from many of the great Anglo-Saxon sites such as Dover Buckland, Great Chesterford, Mucking and West Stow. She
has studied a wide range of cras and in parcular jewellery-making techniques and has skills in silversmithing,
enamelling, ligree, lampwork beadmaking and metal and polymer clays. She has published 15 internaonal books
on jewellery making and other cras. Her books have been translated into many languages.
Sue has now returned to her main interest of archaeology and is using her arsan skills to beer understand the
techniques of the ancient craspeople. Her next book on Anglo-Saxon beadmakers is in the works. She can be
contacted through her website:
www.sueheaser.com
18
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Paynter, S., Kearns, T., 2011. West Clacton Reservoir, Great Bentley, Essex. Analysis of Glass Tesserae. English Heritage.
Peake, J.R.N., 2013. Early Anglo-Saxon Glass Beads: Composion and Origins based on the Finds from RAF Lakenheath, Suolk.
Cardi: University of Cardi.
Price, J. (Ed.) 2000. Glass in Britain and Ireland, AD 350-1100. Brish Museum Press.
Risom, T., 2013. Perlemageren fra Ribe: Historien, Materialerne og Teknikkerne, Sydvestjyske Museer, Forlaget Liljerget.
Tait, H. (Ed.) 1991. Five Thousand Years of Glass. Brish Museum Press.
West, S., 1995. West Stow: the Anglo-Saxon Village. EAA 24
West, S., 1988. The Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Westgarth Gardens, Bury St Edmunds, Suolk: Catalogue. EAA 38.
Wilmo, H., Welham, K., 2013. Late Seventh-Century Glassmaking at Glastonbury Abbey. Journal of Glass Studies Vol. 55.
