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Glass Beads: The earliest known man-made glass objects

Glass beads are thought to date all the way back to around 3500 BC, and are the earliest man-made glass objects found. These early beads were found in Egypt and Eastern Mesopotamia, and were mainly non-transparent.

By 2340-2180 BC in Mesopotamia as well as the Caucasus region (Russia), more sophisticated glass beadmaking methods were being used, such as core formed and wound beads. The even more complex mosaic methods were being used by 1400 BC, and it was at this time that there was a 'boom' in the beadmaking industry.

VENETIANS REINVENT AND MASTER LAMPWORKING

Fast forward to Venice 1292, when the large glassmaking industry was moved to the island of Murano, both to keep the city safe from the numerous furnace fires that had become a problem, and to keep the glassblowing secrets that the Italians had mastered from the rest of the world. Here, Venetians reinvented many of those first methods used, including the wound glass method, which later became known as lampwork.

Lampworking is using a torch to melt and shape glass, and those Venetians mastered this skill like no other culture, and it has not flourished so much as during the 1300's in Italy! There are, however, contemporary artists who excel at lampworking, including Roger Parramore, Bandhu Scott Dunham, and Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka.

Early lampworking was done with the flame of an oil lamp, with the artist blowing air into the flame through a pipe. However, most artists today use torches and usually work with either Borosilicate or Moretti glass. The tools for lampworking are similar to those used in glassblowing, but they're not quite the same. Many lampwork beads are wound with a tube, rather than blown.

Blown glass beads or lampwork glass beads, it's a tough choice, both come in a huge variety of colors and styles, like glass flower beads, Czech glass beads, round glass pearl beads, Venetian glass beads, and dichroic glass beads. And making jewelry with them and wearing glass beaded jewelry are great ways to don a unique, handmade piece of artwork.

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