How the Ribe Project Began
From Furnace to Flame: A Journey In Glass
The Bead Maker from Ribe by Thomas Risom
I had, up until this point, struggled with the use of stringers, the making of stringers, and reticulated cane. Stringers are the the thin strings of glass about the diameter of a number 2 pencil lead. Reticulated cane can come in a variety of diameters and is made by twisting gathers of multiple colors as the cane is pulled. A gather is a collection of soft to molten glass. I struggled to make these things, let alone use them. I felt it was time to take on this demon. The plan was to use Thomas Risom’s book, The Bead Maker From Ribe, to inform my study of the use of these aspects of bead making.
I started out working to get the wasp beads and Ribe S types down. When compared to the extent examples, my early versions tended to be too large. Not before too long, I was able to get the bead sizes down and was really producing a lot. I decided to attempt to make every bead described in the book or depicted in the book.
Of course, with all these beads lying around, I had to start making things with them. I even tried to make some of the rising sun mosaic cane and Mexico stripe ribbon from the book as well as the reticulated cane. Some of the end products came out really well.
Ribbon and reticulated cane, like those described and pictured in The Bead Maker From Ribe.
A bead still on the mandrel made with reticulated cane and a red stringer.
There was so much information in the book, that I drifted into exploring other aspects of the glass industry in the 700s-800s. I started with a small exploration of some off the rod work (work done without the use of glass rods or cane). I started playing with some cobalt glass slag the I picked up at the gem show in Franklin, NC back in 2019.
