Work in Progress: Ancient Roman Glass

I had been drooling over Ancient Roman glass beads for over a year when I finally got lucky enough to spot a big sale on a fresh haul, while I had enough room in my bead budget to shop. The least expensive strands are always the first to go, so it's a race to snap them up in time. It was so exciting to finally get my hands on a strand of 900 year old glass! This week I've been experimenting with the unusual pieces for a necklace or two.

What’s interesting about Ancient Roman glass is the variations in color. Some are perfectly clear, while others have strange patterns in varying shades of brown and white. Many of them look matte, but in fact the surface is very smooth - the “flaws” are within the glass, not on the outside. I decided to use this as an advantage, and I started by sorting out my beads by color, then matched palettes to each group. So far I’m loving how they look with simple beadwork.

What are you making this week?

Copyright 2014 Inspirational Beading
Subscribe to Inspirational Beading
Get inspired on Facebook and Google+