I've done a number of different things in regards to beadwork over the last few years. My most beloved example is my handconstructed beaded snood for the then Baroness Leta.
Beaded Snood
Hand worked and freeform construction. This projected used 2mm round fake white pearl, 2mm round gold metal beads, 2mm red glass seed beads plus larger pearls and various sized red glass beads. Thread-wise I chose to use non-frey, non-rot beading thread for simple longevity. I do not want to replace the thread on this ever!! I could have used a reasonably heavy linen thread as well, but I wasn't taking any chances.
It was lined with a small hair net (to keep it out of her hair more than any other reason) and mounted onto a strip of tablet woven silk approx 15cms long and 1.5cm wide. Mistress Leta provided the braid for me as she is a tablet weaving junky. Pattern was from a very late 15C/early 16C source (which I don't have sorry).
We also sewed a hair comb into the front of the snood so that the weight wouldn't simply drag of her head. This was just a off the shelf plastic comb.
My estimate for the total number of beads used is around 1000. Yes, I am insane. It weighed around 300 to 400 grams.
All in all this took me 5 months to make. However construction hours are probably around the 50 mark in total work.
Obviously based around the Baronial device of the Griffin. The pic above is Mistress Leta wearing the final product for the first time at the Baronial 10th Anniversary.
I have my period evidence for this somewhere, so I will post that later. However more generally, snoods are period as is beading on snoods. Most 'beaded' snoods are ribbon with beading decoration sewn onto the ribbon/fabric or a full fabric snood with beaded trim and highlights.
This is a painting from 1458, you can see the beaded trim along the front of her 'snoodlet'.
The technicque I used for the flat construction was a combination of twill and woven beadwork. The griffin itself is twill work (also called peyote) whilst the beaded 'net' surrounding it is woven work. Peyote is a period construction technique for beadwork. It is more flexible than wovenwork as it moves along both the horizontal and vertical axis as well as the diagonal, where wovenwork is horizontal/vertical only. This allowed for a griffin that would form better to the back of the head and sit more naturally on a curved surface, as well as being a period technique.
The headband above is from a 1500 painting. There is a combination of wovenwork (along the top) and peyote (along the bottom).
Whilst wovenwork is much better know as a US Native American technique (done on a beading loom), it was occassionally used in period construction. From the evidence I have seen this seems to be where only a very small number of bead rows are required (for example the headband above uses it for 3 rows only). Having personally experimented with both styles, I can see exactly why as it is very very hard to maintain a proper shape with a small number of rows when doing peyote because of its flexibility. The beads have a tendancy to slip around far too much to maintain a small row number. So woven and twill can be used in different circumstances.
Alongside all of this, twill work can be very easily done off loom in hand where large rows of wovenwork MUST be constructed on a loom. Which in my mind makes twill a much better overall option as I can take it with me to events/A&S gatherings/whereever with great ease because all I need is a roll of thread, a needle, a pair of scissors and some beads to do work. All of which fit easily into a small pouch :)
I have seen no evidence in European sources for bead wovenwork in period done on a bead loom. The existance of those looms in Europe seems to only come about upon the expansion in the Americas.
Things that I learnt from this project and things I would do differently.
Firstly, when beginning a project this big beadwise, make sure you have all your materials from the beginning! It was very difficult at one point to get some matching pearls through batch colourings. It took awhile to get these to blend in effectively and I ended up with quite a number of other shades. Not that me having more beads is a problem for me, but would have made the project a little faster and kept my motivation and attention alot more if I had purchased a bulk buy of the pearls at the start.
What I would do very differently would be the comb (which I may still replace) and I would make the hairnet by hand next time. I had originally decided to make the hairnet, but that lost out due to time pressures in getting it done for the event.
Sources:
The History of Beads: From 30,000 B.C. to the Present - Lois Sherr Dubin
Jewelry: From Antiquity to the Present - Clare Phillips
A History of Jewellery 1100-1870 - Joan Evans
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