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.1396)
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